The Child's Ashes
by sheep261
Summary: The Past...The Present...The Future. All are combined as one when the spirit of a forgotten trainer is revived, intent on putting things right once and for all.
1. The Decision

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon at all, even though I wish to one day...

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><p>It was a sunny evening in the middle of autumn, with a fine, light mist developing over a certain mountain not far from Pallet Town. The view from the top was simply jaw dropping for an ordinary person; the sky was a deep colour between the mix of orange and red, with the Sun half way down the sky, fitting onto the horizon so naturally it made the sky look amazing.<p>

However, one person in particular didn't find it amazing at all; to him, he had just found it to be normal, although, he had been living on this mountain for a while. The man in question was youngish, about in his mid-20, and it was obvious that he had been far from civilisation for a while, due to the messy flop of hair, which was cut at irregular angles. On his body was a pair of dark-blue jeans, accompanied with black trainers. Although to someone else, it was so cold up on the peak of the mountain, they would have to wear multiple layers, but to this man, he was wearing a black t-shirt which was tight on his body, alongside a blue jacket.

Looking out at the sky, our hero's mind was flooding with all sorts of ideas and emotions, and they were so much that his hands had turned white due to how hard he had been grasping the rock. Taking in a deep breath, he took his hands off the rocks and began flexing them to allow the blood to circulate back threw them. He knew that now was the time, and all the pain and hurt that had been caused to him was about to be justified. A slight smile formed on his face when he thought about this, but it quickly disappeared when he grasped onto the necklace around his neck, with the name of a person; someone he once loved, but had forgotten about him as quick as the others did. Only one letter was visible through his hand as he grasped the necklace: the letter M.

Turning away from the sky, he began walking away from the scene, grabbing his right land with his left and gently massaging it, before it turned a slight bluish colour. The hand was glowing very gently, lighting up the area barely. As he turned to a solid piece of wall, he placed his hand on it, with nothing happening for a couple of seconds, before a rumbling was heard, and a part of the wall crumbled into small pieces of rock. He walked inside the emergency entrance, knowing that its use had finally arrived: the time for his revival has come.

He walked into the cave, seeing that the majority of his Pokémon were all sparring with each other, whilst somewhere preferring the time to meditate, whilst others were simply playing games with each other. The scene made the mystery man smile slightly, before he brought up both hands to his out and let rip an ear-piercing whistle that caught the attention of all his Pokémon. At first they all let out small groans and moans due to their activities being suddenly halted. But once they saw the secondary entrance being open, their eyes widened. Had the time finally arrived? The one that they had all been training for since they could remember? They all put their thoughts to one side as they huddled around the makeshift fire that was in the middle of the room, intrigued to hear what was going to be said.

"It has been 10 years" The man spoke; his voice was clear yet it sounded like a young teenager. "We have had many adventures when we have been away; some good, some bad, some amazing, and some horrifying that we won't be able to forget." As he said this all the Pokémon were nodding along to what he had to say. They all knew with what had happened; it was a horrible thing for them to have encountered. But they were all better off now."  
>"However, I have decided that it's time for us to return to everyone. By now, they probably won't remember us, and that is why the right time is now. We are going back to Pallet; it's time to see a new friend again." He said. The Pokémon knew that he was finished, and they were silent until one red dragon roared his voice of approval, causing the rest to shout their voices in agreement, before they started getting ready for the journey that was ahead.<p>

After 5 minutes of gathering everything and putting it away, the young man gathered up his bag, which on inspection had multiple pokeballs with him, and he returned all of his Pokémon back to their respective pokeball, apart from two; a bird which was waiting by the cave entrance, with it fluttering its wings out and preparing for the flight, and another Pokémon who was hiding in the shadows, arms crossed as if rejecting what was happening at the moment.

"Come on now" the hero said, pulling out a different pokeball; to the normal person it looked similar to any other, but to him it was much more than an ordinary ball, due to the simple marking on the front of it. "I know you don't like going in it, but I think now is the time to do it. Can you do it for me, just this once?" He asked, almost pleading. The hidden Pokémon did nothing for a while until a bright light came from it and hit the person. Getting up from the floor, our hero smiled, before returning the Pokémon back to his ball. The move was a signal to each other saying whether or not to do something. Placing the ball back in the bag, he made sure he had everything before he made his way out of the cave, where the other Pokémon was waiting silently.

Getting onto its back silently, the man uttered 3 words silently. "Pidgeot, Pallet Town", and with that the bird cried out and took off, flapping its wings to gain some altitude, as well as to get away from the mountain. Eventually, the young man decided that it was time, and with a gentle pat on the back, he clung on as the bird began to close in its wings and began to free fall through the sky, gaining so much speed it managed to break the sound barrier, causing the man to grin at how fast his bird had come due to the amount of training it had had.

Due to this quick descent, the pair was at the base of the mountain instantly, and they began to glide through the sky; the evening had turned into a royal blue, and a person on the ground had to use binoculars to actually see the pair in the sky at all.

Pallet Town was the same as it had been when he had last visited; the same small houses, all illuminated with their lights; completely different to goldenrod city. Getting off pidgeot's back when they arrived outside a certain professors lab, he returned Pidgeot back to his ball and walked up the door and sharply knocked on the door 3 times, before waiting for an answer.

If the night was silent, which it wasn't due to the chirping of the birds that was awakening from their slumber to the dawn of a new morning, you would have heard the shuffling of feet and the odd mumble inside the old house. The noise of the chain being swept away from the door, to a key being attempted to be placed into a lock, not once but twice, before the door was swung open by an ageing man, who had more wrinkles on him from the restless work and stress life had decided to throw at him, alongside tired looking eyes from being suddenly awakened by a knocking at the door.

"I'm sorry there young man, but I'm not accepting any new trainers at the moment, please come back in the morning when I'm open." Oak said with a stifled yawn as he tried to remain polite, before he grasped the door handle with one hand proceeded to start closing the door, but before it was fully shut, a foot was stuck inside, preventing it from shutting fully. Fear suddenly erupted inside of him, unsure of how to react to this certain situation. Before he even had the time to say that he was going to call the police, he was interrupted.

"I'm not here for a Pokémon Professor" The man said as he opened the door slowly with minimal effort, revealing Oak staggering back slowly into the hallway. Nothing was said at first, before the mystery man looked up at the professor. "I'm here to have a talk with you."

Looking into the man's eyes, the professor instantly knew who that eye's belonged to; one that seemed to be so young, but inside it had shown the stories of age rapidly taking control. One that when he had first saw it, beamed the excitement of a 10 year old, but now the eyes of one that showed no emotion, causing him to begin to shake uncontrollably. "No, it can't be…." He said, with his words beginning to tail off. "How are you alive? We thought you were dead..." Words failed to make their way fully to his tongue as he tried to react to what was happening. "You know what, never mind any of that. Come inside now, before anyone see's you." The old man ushered frantically, with the man accepted before walking inside the house; the professor followed in shortly after looking out to see no one was inspecting what the sudden noise was, especially at this time in the morning, before he closed the door.

"How have you been Ash?"

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><p>Author Note: As some of you may know, this chapter is very similar to the first one of my original story. However I decided that I wanted to change the main storyline of the story completely, so I changed some small things, generally the grammar and some weird phrasing.<br>But regardless of that, I now have a good sense of direction of where the story can go, especially with one intriguing relationship I came up with as well (That won't be revealed as of yet, apart from that 1 letter ;D )  
>But as of now, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and the next one will be up in about a week's time. See you then folks!<p> 


	2. Painful Memories

Once again, I don not own Pokemon, etc etc... Now onto the Story!

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><p>Professor Oak was by the kitchen making himself a cup of tea, whilst at the same time getting Ash a glass of water, seeing as the young man had asked for a glass politely. However though nobody could see it through the calm face, inside the professor's mind his thoughts and emotions were flying all over the place. One second Oak was feeling relived and happy that Ash had returned seeing as he had missed him greatly; the next he was angry that Ash hadn't even bothered to call him once and ask how he was, and finally he was sad as he couldn't imagine what could have happened to Ash during his solitude and the horrors he must of faced.<p>

Rubbing his head and smoothing out the ever increasing number of wrinkles on his head due to old age, the professor grabbed both glasses and shuffled to the table in the living room. Placing both cups on the table, the duo silently sipped at the drinks, though both were thinking different things. Oak was thinking of a way of trying to ask Ash what he had done on his journey, but he didn't know what to say in case of angering him. Ash on the other hand was thinking that if the professor didn't ask him a question any time soon, he was going to leave and do what he had to do.

Moments passed and both of them were twiddling the thumbs, the mood having turned awkward, before eventually Ash began to get up from his seat as if to signify that he was leaving when Oak piped up with a question from his seat.

"Why Ash? Why did you leave?" He asked, never looking up from his cup of tea. His face was trying to convey the emotion of angry, but his voice betrayed him as it was laced with sadness and sympathy. "Why did you have to leave so suddenly? I was so shocked when you left with no warning, and you couldn't imagine the heartbreak I had felt…"

A once younger professor began to make his way to his laboratory, while letting out a huge sigh. Filled with stress and anger, the past couple of weeks had been truly life changing and to be honest he wanted the once quiet life back.

Placing his key in the door, he opened it and went inside before closing it gently then proceeding to make himself a cup of tea. In situations like these that always made him feel better. Once the water was boiling the professor made his way to his fridge and took out a bottle of milk before he noticed a letter on the table addressed to him.

Puzzled by this he put down the milk took the letter before sitting down and read what it said.

_Dear Professor,_

_As you know the past couple of weeks have been truly life changing for me and I don't feel like the same person anymore. Ever since those events two weeks ago mostly everyone around me has changed towards me and I don't think I can cope with that. That is why I have decided to leave Pallet and my friends...to make them happy, as well as me. If I don't manage to speak to you again I thank you for everything you have done and the great adventures you have told me to go on. If you look out into the garden, you'll notice that my Pokémon are gone but please don't be alarmed. I have simply taken them along with me on my journey, so that at least I will have some company with me._

_- Ash._

"Oh Ash" The professor said, hot tears running down his face as he read the letter. Why was it always the good people that had to be picked on and tossed aside like they were nothing? The professor began to cry softly as he read the letter, not knowing what to do. After crying for a good 10 minutes the professor got up and went to his safe and opened it before depositing the letter in their in case it was needed again.

Ash was silent when he heard the professor recap of that fateful day, Ash could remember it so clearly. When he was writing that letter, his emotions were the same as the professor; he was filled with a huge amount of sadness whilst crying his eyes out due to the fact that he had to leave his home. But now he had changed. He wasn't the weakling all those years ago. No, he was now emotionally stronger. He wouldn't cry at the slightest thing anymore, nor would his emotions get in the way of anything.

"Professor, I'm so sorry for the grief I caused you on that day." Ash said as he twiddled his thumbs. Inside the slightest feeling of guilt was slowly rising inside him. Did he really mean to cause the professor to feel like what he did that today? He didn't mean to, but looking back at what the professor just said...well Ash was having second thoughts.

They were both silent for a couple of minutes, not knowing what to say at all. However, Ash decided to take the innovative and broke the silence. "I didn't want to go you know." He said, not looking at the professor, preferring to fiddle with his fingers, which Ash had begun to see was a typical sign of nervousness for him. "It was just after the Sinnoh League, and with all the events that had taken place, I just couldn't cope with it anymore." He said before proceeding to tell Oak what had happened.

Ash was walking down route 1 after returning home from Sinnoh; although he had lost to Tobias he was feeling proud of his Pokémon for beating his Darkrai and that was all he wanted. After a 20 minute walk he could see the outskirts of the town, and Ash couldn't keep his excitement of returning home away at all. Running all the way home, it only took him 5 minutes to get home. He paused outside the fence to his house, taking in the site of the old family home that he had missed so much before he rushed inside.

"I'm home mu-" Ash began to say but he was stopped by the monster cuddle he was getting from his mum, as she rushed all the way from the kitchen to give Ash a hug as soon as she had heard the front door being opened.

"There's my little champion! How are you? Have you been eating enough? You look thin? Have you been changing you pants all the time…?" She said with the questions continuing on and on with Ash only being able to give a mumble for each answer. Eventually she let Ash go and turned back towards the kitchen where wonderful smells of home cooking began floating through when Ash realised that his stomach was rumbling.

"Hue hue, looks like someone has missed some food in a while." Ash joked patting his stomach before he started walking into the kitchen before he suddenly stopped. The sight in front of his eyes was simply astounding; it looked like there was a feast on the table which was fit for a king! There were simply just mountains of food everywhere on all different plates. "OH MY GOD!" Ash shouted, and as usual by thinking with his stomach, he rushed to the table and picked up a spare empty plate before pilling up on food after food on it ignoring the look from his mother's face.

"At that moment I thought everything was going fine. There was no trouble at all. I was happy at last; the defeat to Tobias was far gone from my mind, plus the fact that I was too busy shoving food into my face." Ash said letting out a little chuckle before proceeding on with the story.

Ash was lying in his bed, looking out at the stars from the window, whilst Pikachu was sleeping at the foot of the bed. Now that he had finished the Sinnoh League, he was left thinking as to what he could do next; was it worth his time to maybe too go back and go through Kanto again? Or was it time to settle now in Pallet? He gave a sigh as he mulled over these decisions, leading him to begin thinking that his journey was now over. Looking over at Pikachu, Ash let out a small smile. He knew that as long as Pikachu was with him, as well as his other Pokémon his adventures were never over; as long as they were together, new ones would keep on popping up all the time. Content with this, he closed his eyes with a smile on his face, ready for the journeys that awaited him as he slowly drifted off into the depths of sleep.

Ash woke up to the heat of his bedroom, and his initial reaction was that it was just his duvet that was making him hot. However as he kicked it off to try and get some air onto his body he noticed that instead of the heat disappearing, it was actually becoming more intense as the seconds passed on. Opening his eyes he saw the flickering of orange and yellow underneath his door. He had no idea what it was until he began coughing from the smoke that was seeping through as well. There was no denying that it was a fire, and instantly his heart was pumping away from adrenaline. He had been in life or death situations before, but never had he encountered a fire before. He took in deep breaths as he tried to evade the feeling of death as he let out a small chain of coughs, before the fear of death was soon replaced of the fear of his mum so he scrambled out of the bed to get to his belt.

"Buizel! I need a Water Gun attack quickly!" Ash shouted as he scrambled for his pokebelt that was lying near his bed and chucked the pokeball out; soon the sea otter materialised out into the open, and started spraying water at a high pressure around the door to get rid of the flames that were licking around it.

"Mum!" Ash shouted as soon as the fire was gone, before he pushed open the door and started running along the hall; adrenaline was rushing through him even more than a few minutes ago, as well as the mixture of horror. If anything happened to her, he would never be able to forgive himself…

Getting to her door, Ash started pounding on it whilst screaming, trying to grab her attention at least; but it was to no avail as he heard nothing at all coming from behind the door. Determined to get in there as quick as possible, he shoulder-barged the door as hard as he could, and after a couple of attempts the door collapsed, greeting Ash with the vision of flames covering the entire room. Ash had Buizel instantly use Water Gun as soon as the otter had made its way back to him. It gave a small nod before releasing another volley of high pressured water from its mouth, which cleared most of the water out of the room. Rushing over to his mother who was lying on the floor, Ash began to feel the hot prick of tears that were forming in his eyes as he reached her. All of her clothes were burnt right through with multiple holes everywhere on them, but her body was the worst. Her arms and legs were covered black, presumably from the soot but also from the burnt skin, although remarkably her face was fine, although there were a few blisters forming around her cheeks as the skin slowly turned black as well.

"You're going to be ok mum" Ash said, the tears falling down his face, while hugging her softly; he didn't want to cause her any more pain at them minute, as he knew that the burns would hurt even more if pressure was applied onto them. "We're going to get help for you." he said but Delia gave a small groan, before she slowly raised her hand and placed it on Ash's cheek. "You were always a bad liar you know Ash..." She said with a sad smile. "Just let me tell you this..." She said, before coughing loudly, before her hand faltered a second on his cheek. "I want you to promise me that you're going to look after yourself and your Pokémon for the future OK?' She asked, her voice getting weaker by the second. "I promise, Mum." Ash said, the tears still falling down his cheeks. "Thank you…" She said, before her eye lids began to flutter before closing, and her head slumped to the side, showing that it was all over for her now. Ash began to cry into her body, shouting out to her to wake up, even though he knew that it was of no use now. But that didn't stop him at all, he wasn't going to give up at all.

"So that's what happened on that night." Ash said and when he went to scratch his nose. He felt the wetness of his cheeks and realized that there were tears falling from his eyes, even though he didn't feel like crying at all. It seemed that just thinking about that night always made him sad, and now was no exception.

"I always think back to what I could have done to change things but inside I know that it was my fought all along." Ash said. The professor just sat there, tears rolling down his face as well. He was as shocked as the entire population of Pallet was when they heard the news, but it was worse for him seeing as he only lived down the road. He was given a brief story from the fire-fighters as to what the cause of death was, but he had never been able to get the eye-witness account though.

"I feel so sorry for you Ash but what actually happened? Why did you leave so suddenly? I would have been able to of helped you, as well as your friends being here for you." Oak asked, still none the wiser as to what could of caused Ash's departure. Ash just looked up at him and gave him a thin smile, all though his eyes lied to him, as they were filled with anger. "You might have seen them as friends, but after the fire, I truly learnt what they were all like. Plain liars." He spat, taking in a deep breath as he continued to tell the story.

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><p>Author Note:<p>

I can't believe how bad this was when I went over it; I managed to add another good 500 words from editing from this. *shakes head* Anyway, Hope you enjoyed it, and if you're like Magikarp and saw the first version, then you know what's going to happen. But if not, don't ruin the surprise, and join me next week for the instalment of this story!


	3. Good to Bad

Once again, I do not own Pokemon, even though I'm extremely jealous of Nintendo…

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><p>Professor Oak was waiting for Ash to carry on with his story; he took another sip of his drink whilst pondering what could have been the reason for the sudden departure? What had happened that was so shocking, that Ash said he would not believe him? Oak couldn't think of a reason that would be able to do that at all, so the best option would be to wait for Ash to explain himself.<p>

Ash on the other hand was thinking how to explain the events properly to Oak; it was so hard to explain due to the trauma he had experienced at that particular time he had blocked it all out from his mind, so it was only after his years of solitude that he was able to mentally piece it all together again. So after a brief minute if silence Ash finally spoke after a heavy and sad sigh.

"You see professor, the group of people involved in this made me feel terrible and worthless" Ash said with a sigh, before he got up from his chair and started pacing around the room. The stress of remembering what had happened 10 years ago was making his emotions very volatile; one moment he was sad, before ranging up to extreme anger for the pain he had received, before even going down to happy, as the actual solitude had made him a better trainer overall.

"I can remember the first day so clearly; the people, the location and even the bloody words!" Ash said, his voice filled with venom; Oak noted that his hands were gripping the chairs extremely tight as they had both turned into a milky white colour due to the lack of blood reaching them. He was more worried about the chair breaking though; it was a nice antique piece he had required over the years, so he wanted to preserve it still.

"Calm down Ash" Oak said, getting up and placing a comforting hand in his shoulder. "Why don't you just take in a deep breath to relax, and then tell me what happened without breaking my chair. " he said with a chuckle, hoping to make the atmosphere more friendly. Ash gave the professor a small smile at the joke made as he released his hands, before taking in a nice deep breath. "Thanks professor. Just remembering about what happened gets me worked up. But anyway, let's start from the beginning then shall we."

***Flashback***

Ash walked away from the cemetery whilst looking up at the sky. It had been 3 weeks since the fire and he was beginning to cope quite well. All of his friends had been supportive to him, helping him out with the house and other activities to keep him busy so that he wouldn't be left to think about the events that happened that night.. He would have liked to have spent more time with his mum today, but his friends had asked to see him specifically to explain something to him.

It was a simple note pinned to the bedroom door in Oak's spare room when he first woke, just saying for him to meet here at 3:00 PM sharp. Ash had just looked at the note and who had signed it noting that it just said 'your friends', before shrugging and throwing the paper in the bin.

The time was now 2:55 and Ash was already at the house because he figured out that he might as well make himself comfortable for what was going to happen; however, he was not expecting his friends to be waiting there for him already. Ash looked at all of his friends, noticing out of all of them, only Brock, Gary and Tracy weren't to be seen at all. Instead though, he was surprised to see Forrest there as well, but he pushed it to the back of his mind, as he figured that he must have been taking Brock's place instead.

"Hey guys" Ash said giving a huge smile to everyone. "What's the big-"

***SMACK***

Before he could even finish his sentence, Dawn's hand had struck his cheek hard, and had physically sent Ash spinning around the room with his hand clutching at his face. Ash was both shocked and surprised at what had just happened, especially the hit from the young girl that he thought was his friend.

"What…what was that for Dawn" Ash said whilst looking at her, trying to see what he could have done to have caused such a reaction from her that it resulted in her slapping him.

"You know what that was for you bastard," she snarled, before she lashed out again in the hopes of trying to hit him, but thankfully she was stopped by the others. It was clear to Ash that she was shaking but he couldn't be sure whether it was from being sad or just pure anger.

"What? What did I do?" Ash said with his voice filled with sadness. He was beginning to feel unsure of this meeting now, especially from Dawn's reaction. Why on earth did she do that, but was she the only one? What did the others want as well then?

"Come on don't act like an idiot Ash" Max said pushing his glasses back up his face. "Haven't you realised that since we have been hanging around you since your mum died, more of us have been getting hurt."

"What? That's what this is all about? That can't be true! Yes when we've been out it seemed as if all of us were getting hurt a bit more, but it was just pure coincidence…"

"Only the odd stumble? Rubbish. We tried not to show it, but all of us have been seriously hurt when we were hanging around you. Look." Max said lifting up his sleeves at the same time. All down his left arm was multiple of scratches. "This is the same on my other arm as well; does this look the odd stumble to you Ash? To me, this has caused a lot of pain for me. Sure it's not something major, but it still stings like hell."

"But, it was…"

"No Ash, it wasn't just a stumble. Explain to me then how I just experienced a stumble..." said May, who Ash had only now noticed that she was sitting down in a chair in the corner of the room. Everyone's attention went to her and it was clear to even someone with poor eyesight with the massive cast that filled her right leg. "This wasn't just a stumble was it Ash? Was me catching my leg in that hill a stumble Ash? No, I broke my leg. Can you even imagine the pain I'm in! And it's all because of you!" she said, before she started sobbing silently, causing Dawn to rush over there and hug her, whilst shooting as a murderous look in his direction.

"But I don't understand. You just slipped…" Ash mumbled trying to make sense of the situation. Where they right? Was he to cause for the injuries they had gotten recently? "I… I need to be alone for a bit." He mumbled out loud, before he ran out of the room and up the stairs, before locking himself in his room.

***End Flashback***

Oak just stared at Ash, confused by what he had just heard. Was all of this true? When he spoke to May, Max, Dawn and the others, they had seemed fine , with them all saying that they were there to try and help Ash as much as possible, so how could have they changed so rapidly in such a short time?

"I'm sorry Ash but I don't understand. I knew about them getting hurt but I don't understand why they were blaming you. Can you explain this please?" the professor asked, tilting his head slightly waiting for Ash to respond.

"Yes. At the time professor, I didn't understand what they meant as well. All I could think of was the odd trip or stumble whether we went out." Ash said, looking out of the window as if he had spotted something, before he looked back at Oak. "However, it wasn't after I had left that I began to figure out what was happening. You see, doesn't it seem strange that when you are walking down a side path by a road that you suddenly trip? When I started thinking about it, I realised that most of the incidents were similar to this. May on the other hand was the final piece in all of this. We were out in the field having a race up a hill, when I heard her cry out. At first I thought Max had done something such as chuck something at her, but then I heard the crack that followed shortly after. Afterwards I thought she must have tripped over a hole but, when I re-visited the site not long after I had left all of you, I inspected the entire hill but there was nothing that was possible of causing a break to the leg..." Ash said, before shaking his head. His friends had turned against him for something that wasn't his fault, but rather pure coincidence.  
>However there was a slight nagging feeling in the back of his head. Was it pure coincidence that all of this happened after his mother's death? Sure the fire had been put down as an accident, but even he couldn't see how that was possible. How a house could suddenly be put on fire, with no traces of what caused it? And when you link that with the accidents, it started to look like it all had been done on purpose.<p>

Oak on the other hand was simply shell-shocked by this revelation. "I… I don't know what to say Ash. So you are implying that someone was behind this then?" Oak asked, and all he was given was a grim nod of the head. "So did you ever find out who caused these accidents to happen then Ash?" he asked, trying to squeeze out the last details from Ash, desperate to know what had happened.

"Unfortunately not. I searched high and low but I found nothing."

"Hmmm… Actually, you never got to why you left did you?" Oak said, before shutting up in order for Ash to speak.

"Ah yes that's right. Let's see, it was only a couple of hours after my friends that…."

***Flashback***

Reflecting in the events that had happened earlier on, Ash felt that he needed to owe his friends an apology for what had happened. He never wanted to cause any harm to them at all, so he felt that apologising was the way to start. Maybe then they could forgive him and then things could be patched up.

Right at that moment he heard the doorbell ring, so he went downstairs thinking to himself that once he answered this he would go over and see his friends. It was an excuse to go see them as well, so if the person at the door wasn't important, he could tell them to go away as he was meeting some important people.

As soon as he opened the door, he was greeted with the sight of a fist coming straight at him and that was all he remembered as he blacked out, apart from "On the same cheek Dawn hit me as well…"

Ash woke up to the sight of all his friends from earlier on were in the living room accompanied with their parents; straight away he guessed that this wasn't going to be good, and his fears were proven right when Norman spoke first.

"You're a pain in the arse Ash you know that?" He started his face red with fury and rage. "We all let our kids go on adventures with you in the prospect of them having a good time and being able to see the regions, with you ultimately leading them to danger. So why do you have to continue bringing more of innocent people with you!" he shouted, with his wife putting a hand on his shoulder to calm himself down.

"Norman…. I'm sorry for what I have done. I never wanted to cause my friends any danger. I'm truly sorry…" Ash said, not knowing how to finish off the sentence. He was shocked at how his day was turning from bad to worse so quickly, it was unreal.

"Sorry? I don't give a crap if you're sorry you little prick" he snarled at Ash. "All of us have come to an agreement. You are going to pack your bags and you're going to leave tonight. No ifs, no buts. If we... no. If I see you here tomorrow I will personally hunt you down and make you pay. Understood?" He said with his face right next to Ash's before pulling away; he had noticed that Ash's eye's had turned a slight blue tinge compared to the normal brown colour, but he didn't want to appear frightened by the change though.

"Leave? But… but I don't know where to go. Come on guys, help me out here" he said barely registering what Norman had done; he was almost pleading to his friends when he said the last part of the sentence. However, all he was given was the same cold and stony looks from his friends.

"Guys…" Ash said, with his pulse racing on, quickening by the second. "Please don't do this to me" he pleaded. This couldn't he happening at all to him; especially with the circumstances that had been dealt to him recently.

"No Ash. No more help." a feminine voice said. Ash looked around and saw that it came from Misty, his first ever friend apart from Pikachu. "We've helped you so many times in the past, and not once have you repaid the favour. So now you're going to repay all of us." She said before heading past him and walked out of the door. The other followed suit until Ash was left alone. It was only when everyone had fully left that Ash realised the whole scale of the situation, with the silent tears raining down his face as he picked himself up and went up the stairs.

***End Flashback***

"The rest as you know is history professor. Once I had gathered up my Pokémon, I left straight away, not wanting to see this place again. Until now that is." Ash said, giving out a sigh. Suddenly, he got up and stretched before heading to the door. "Professor, do you mind if I send my Pokémon out for a bit of air?" Ash said, hand ready at his bag. Light of the morning was beginning to flood through the windows. Did I really go on for that long period of time? He thought, thinking about how it was dark when he had arrived at the house.

"Sure Ash. I might as well have a look at your Pokémon as well. For evaluation of course" the professor chuckled whilst getting up. Fishing for the keys in his pocket, he eventually found them and unlocked the door. They were both greeted to a strong gust of wind.

Walking out into the open space, Ash pulled his bag around and with about 6 pokeballs in each hand, he sent out all of his Pokémon in quick succession after replacing the balls. All of Ash's Pokémon looked around as they tried to scan the new area they were in, for they all begun to stretch out without having to worry where they were as they all recognised this place within a heartbeat. Oak looked out at the Pokémon, amazed at how powerful they were.

Pikachu who ran straight up to Ash and jumped on his shoulder, glad to be out of that dammed pokeball finally. Meanwhile Blastoise, Floatzel, Kingler, Crawdaunt, Lapras and Glalie went over to the lake area and proceeded to relax with some gentle swimming. Venasaur, Meganium, Torterra, Tauros, Snorlax, Donphan, Toarkoal went over to the to the meadow area and begun to doze in the steadily growing sun, trying to get some of the natural sunlight into their bodies as soon as possible.

Pidgeot, Heracross, Noctowl, Swellow, Staraptor and Gliscor all instantly went over to the tree and made themselves comfy in the branches, all keeping an eye out on the other Pokémon. Charizard, Primeape, Typhlosion, Sceptile, Infernape and Garchomp all made their way in front of the tree and begun sparring with one another.

The only remaining Pokémon was… Totodile who was dancing in-between everyone with a huge smile on his face.

"Um Ash, not trying to be rude or anything but why hasn't Totodile…evolved yet out of curiosity?" Oak asked, completely confused as to why the water starter had remained in its basic form compared to the fully evolved Pokémon surrounding it.

"Ah good old Totodile" Ash laughed. "He's the only odd one out unfortunately. He refuses to evolve yet, as he is waiting for the right moment."

"Ah I see. All of your pokemon are looking good, but I can't help but wonder that one of them is miss-"Before Oak could finish, a sudden shadow was above him and within a matter of seconds he was enveloped in a purple goo.

"Ah yes, that's what I was missing. Hello there Muk" Oaks muffled voice said, before he crawled himself out of Muk's body. Muk just gave a huge smile at Oak, before he made his way back over to the pokemon lounging about in the sun. Ash on the other hand was on the floor laughing. It had been a long time since something had made him laugh like that before. Calming himself down, he gave Oak a good smile.

"Now professor, would you like to see my latest additions as well?" Ash asked, and without waiting for an answer, he reached into a side pocket in his bag and brought out 10 more balls before chucking them in the air_. _Arange of Pokémon was released from their pokeballs as they materialised in front of Ash, with the professor just looking with his mouth wide open.

"Um professor, you might want to close your mouth or you're going to be catching some flies soon." Ash said with a chuckle as he turned around and noticed the expression on the professor's face with Oak instantly shutting his mouth.

"Ash… when, and how did you catch these Pokémon?" Oak asked, amazed at the power they looked, especially if they were new additions to the team as he had never seen Ash with these pokemon in his life before.

"Well, when you're shunned by your friends, travelling is your best option I'm afraid." Ash said. "When you are on your own, you would be amazed at how much faster you can travel as well. I met some old friends on my travels, as well as my new ones."

Oak was amazed at how calm Ash was. It was amazing to see, with it also being obvious that he had close bonds with all his pokemon, especially that he had been able to meet up with some of his old friends as well, such as Lapras and Primeape as well.

"Actually Professor I have a favour to ask of you. While I'm here can you look after my pokemon seeing as I'm only allowed the usual 6, but can you also give me a new pokedex in the name of…Red. Red Satoshi." Ash asked. He wanted the new pokedex because if he was asked by one of his former friends to look at it, they would know instantly who he was.

"No problem Ash. In fact, I was going to say the same thing to you as well, but you beat me too it I suppose" Oak chuckled before heading inside. He returned 5 minutes later, with a new updated pokedex in hand and passed it to Ash, who bowed his head in acknowledgement.

"Just to let you know, your name has been changed on it as well, but I've added a nice little feature on it as well, as I know it would suit you more than a new trainer; all it does is that you can access your pc at any time from your pokedex and transfer over and receive any pokemon when you need it. Obviously you can still contact me about that, but I know that you would need this if you're in the wild. But I'll still be able to look after your pokemon as well though." Ash was simply flabbergasted at this knowledge, before he pulled in the old man for a hug, grateful for what he was doing before he released him.

The duo stood silent in the field just looking at the pokemon. However, unaware to them was a Murkrow sitting up top on the roof, silently observing them and every movement that they made, as well as each word they said due to a recorder placed on its neck, until it stretched out its wings and flew away.

"So Ash, what's your plan now?" Oak asked, although he probably knew what Ash was going to do. Although he did come here to talk to him, he knew what Ash really wanted to do; he wanted to go after his friends.

"Well, I thought I would head up to Pewter for a bit before challenging the gym again" ash said, before looking at his watch, "If I leave now, I might get there before 3 which will give me enough time to consider what to do next" he said, before signalling over to 5 of his pokemon. The rest of his pokemon understood, as Ash had told them when they were in Mt Silver that if this time did come, certain pokemon would be chosen for certain places.

He looked at the pokemon that were standing before him, happy with the choices he had made; obviously Pikachu would be coming with him, as he wouldn't leave his starter to not come with him at all.

"Well, I better go now. Thanks for seeing me Prof. It was nice to finally speak to someone that I trust again. I'll be in touch." Ash said, hugging the professor briefly before setting off down the path around the house before turning right into the direction of Viridian.

"Bye Ash" Oak muttered, wiping away a solitary tear before heading inside, leaving Ash's other pokemon outside to do what they had to do.

_**(Skip to mid-day)**_

Oak was sitting inside the living, sipping a cup of tea with the TV on, but his mind wasn't on the TV at all but on Ash instead. He was anxious to hear from him again, but he was also a bit scared at what was to come as well. Different variations of images appeared in his mind, and he was so involved with the different scenarios he did not hear the slight creak behind him at all.

The last though Oak had was before he was knocked unconscious by the assailant behind him was "_Is Ash going to be ok?"_

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><p>Authors Note: So I hoped you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed going over this again. You might be thinking as to why I haven't revealed the extra pokemon as of yet, but I decided that it would make a nice surprise for later on.<p>

To Swagnilla-Ice-1985, I'm not revealing anything as of yet. With the name in mind, it will be a nice shock hopefully to everyone, and also a nice change from the usual ones as well.

See you in a weeks time!


	4. Saviour

Disclaimer: As per Usual, I do not own Pokemon at all, but rather just enjoying writing stories about it

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><p>Compared to earlier on, the living room was quite dark due to the lack of any light, but the only source that provided the eye to see what was happening was from the window in the wall, was limited due to the shades pulled down on it. Sitting in the corner of the room, there was a trail of smoke coming from a lone cigarette from a figure sitting down on a chair with its leg's crossed.<br>Pulling the cigarette from its mouth as the cigarette was finally finished, it was tossed to the floor and stamped on, leaving a small amount of ash on the floor. The person pulled out a pokeball from a pocket lazily, before revealing a humanoid pokemon from the ball.

"Wake him up….. Now" the person said to the Machoke that analysing its new surroundings. Flexing his fingers, the Machoke's right hand began to glow white and he strode over to the slumped over figure sitting in the chair. With a quick motion, the hand was brought down on Oak's cheek with a loud crack, causing the professor to moan as he slowly came round.

"Huh? Wha….. What's going on here" Oak spluttered before he spotted the Machoke leering at him. In his entire lifetime of researching the Kanto pokemon, he had seen many Machoke's in his life, but he had never seen a more buffed up Machoke like this before. Even though they were known to be very powerful, and he had seen the extent of their power first-hand, the muscles on this one exceeded the normal ones as they were bulging quite regularly; probably from the oxygen that was being pumped into them. Oak knew that a simple punch to his face would cause a lot of serious damage, as with the state he was in now, he knew that it would be better to not antagonise it.

"Ah, so the famous Professor Oak finally wakes up. How are we then Sir?" The man in the corner said with a slight chuckle, before he getting up whilst concealing his entire body hidden in the shadows as he walked around the room slowly.

"Oh I'm very well thank-" Oak began before stopping; What on earth was he doing? He had almost started talking with this…person without even thinking of the situation he was in. If he had started going on as if nothing had happened, then it would have been easier for any information to have been gotten out of him. "Who are you and what do you want?" Oak snapped at him, trying to intimidate him slightly, even though he was the one that was scared.

"Oh, getting straight to the point now aren't you." The man chuckled as he continued to walk around the room slowly. "At the moment you don't need to know who I am at all, as it won't do you any good at all. But your right in one thing though, we should get to the point as quick as possible." He said before stepping out of the shadows.  
>The man was quite tall with a lean body whilst being dressed in a black uniform with a few white spots around it. Nothing really stood out from him apart from one thing; his hair was a deep purple with the middle part combed all the way back. He also had a little bit if stubble beneath his chin which was also a bit purple.<p>

"Let's get to the point straight: Where is He? And if you're wondering who I'm talking about, I mean Ash." he said with raised eyebrow, before he gave a chuckle at Oaks reaction. Oaks mouth was wide open with shock; how on earth could they of known Ash was here? He knew he couldn't say anything about Ash; he had to protect him from whoever this man was. He had no idea if he was an assassin or was working for someone else, but he couldn't reveal anything as of now, especially with Ash coming back into his life as well.

"I...I don't know what you are talking about. I don't know an Ash. I've been on my own all day, tending to some pokemon a trainer left for me to care for while he is travelling." he said, but he knew that his attempted lie hadn't worked when Petrel had simply laughed at the feeble attempt, before putting his face right next to the professors.

"I'll say this again. Where is Ash and where is he going? It's fine if you don't want to answer me, but be aware that I will find out one way or another." Petrel asked before tapping on one of his pokeballs to show Oak that he wasn't afraid of using force to get the answers that he wanted.

"I'm telling the truth; I don't remember an Ash come here at all today, let alone in the past. The last time someone called Ash came into this building was about 4 years ago" he muttered before he began sweating; why on earth was these questions being asked, but more importantly what did they want to know about Ash?

"Well then, according to my… unique sources he had said that an Ash was here today, talking to you, but it looks like I have to make you remember what exactly happened instead." he said began pulling another pokeball, and in a flash of light a Houndoom appeared in front of Oak with its teeth glaring. "Give the professor a little demonstration of your power please." Petrel said with a smirk, and Oak flinched when a ball of fire was fired past his face and onto a chair next to him, instantly turning it into smouldering embers.

Meanwhile outside, a certain energetic water type pokemon was prancing around the yard; Totodile was too filled with adrenaline to take a nap at the moment. Out of all the pokemon he was the one that used to skip nap time in order to play with Ash when they were at Mt Silver, but now they were all on their own; there was no one to play with.  
>However the bright light that escaped through the door caught his attention, and bundling over to the door, he opened it and bounced right in, before he was staring at Petrel with the Machoke and Houndoom right in his face.<p>

"Houndoom, crunch now. We don't need any distractions now. It's still a starter, so this should be an easy job for you." he said, before he placed his attention back on the professor, intent on getting some answers as soon as possible. Houndoom didn't need telling twice. It had been too long since he had the chance to have a play thing to chew on; his mouth widened revealing the array of razor sharp teeth with droll piling around in his mouth. He pounced straight away at the water type, the feeling of fresh blood driving it on to kill.

However it seemed like Totodile was having other idea on his hands; with a massive grin on his face as he bounced from one foot to the other, he glowed a deep orange as he took in a deep breath. The Houndoom had been too busy thinking about killing to actually notice the dull colour at all, before its mouth was clamped shut by both hands of the Totdile. With a sadistic grin forming on his face, he begun swinging the Dark type around in a circle, before it was flung across the room at an incredible speed. With a sickening crunch as it hit the wall, the Houndoom gave a small whimper as it slid down the wall, before finally slumping down on the floor unconscious.

"Hmmm. An interesting move from a water type; perhaps I underestimated Ash's pokemon by a lot for it to defeat my Houndoom. No less, it won't dampen my mission at all." He said while returning Houndoom before putting his hand on his belt as he begun to think about what pokemon to choose next.

However, he didn't even have the time to summon out his next pokemon as he was stuck in the face with a quite powerful water gun. He was sent to the floor before he started groaning at how all of his clothing was wet.

The Machoke gave a roar when he saw that his master had been attacked without any reason at all; he began focusing his rage all at once into his body as he prepared the focus energy. Taking in a deep breath, his arms began to glow a deep white as he rushed forward at the Totodile as he tried to attack it with the Cross Chop. However at the same time as the Machoke was prepping its Focus energy, Totodile had glowed a bright Blue light….before his body had a dull glow over it. Bouncing from side to side with the new vigorous energy inside of him from the Dragon Dance, he rushed at the incoming Machoke at an incredible speed. One minute he was facing the fighting type, the next he was behind it attacking it with it glowing claws. This continued multiple times with Totodile seemingly vanishing in the air, to appearing somewhere else in no time at all.

Eventually it was all too much for the fighting type, as with one final swipe to its body, its stumbled down onto one knee, and with a groan he collapsed to the floor, unable to fight anymore. Petrel picked himself up, shaken from the Water Gun attack before returning the Machoke. He was amazed that the Totodile was still dancing around as if nothing had happened at all to it. Yet for such a small things its power was undoubtedly very powerful.

"You might be lucky this time Oak, but you better tell your little Ash that he better beware. He won't be as lucky next time" he spat before rushing out of the room. In his haste he hadn't noticed the badge that was before hidden on the lapel on his uniform had fallen off from the attack was now on the floor, glinting slightly from the light.

Totodile bounded over to where the professor was, and with a swift swipe, the ropes that bounded him together fell to the floor easily. Oak slowly got up from the chair as he rubbed his arms together from where the ropes had been too tight against his frail body, before taking in a deep breath that finally it was all over.  
>"Thank you Totodile" he said and water type gave a big smile before he returned back outside to try and find someone to play with. Oak watched him leave before he went over to the badge which he had spotted from where Petrel had been moments before. He bent down and picked it up, puzzled by its appearance. It was a black badge, easily hidden by uniform, but when it was looked at, it had the appearance of a black hole it seemed with little white dots in random places.<p>

"I must inform Ash of this event" Oak thought whilst pocketing the badge, before going back outside to check on the pokemon to see if any of them had been hurt from the intrusion.

Ash had finally arrived at Viridian, but was annoyed that it had taken him longer than he thought it had. Maybe instead of walking he should have ridden on one of his pokemon instead so that he would have got there in an hour instead of the 3 hours it had taken him.

Ash didn't mind at all, even though to be honest it had allowed him to remember all the good times he used to experience when he was young. It was actually nice seeing it all over again and it brought a smile to his face.

The first thing Ash did was he went straight into the poke-centre and began to book a room. Although he was used to living outside in the wilderness, he wanted to enjoy a bit of luxury for a bit now. When he passed his pokedex to the nurse Joy on duty, she didn't even bother to give him a second glance before she returned his pokedex back and hoped he enjoyed his stay.

Mumbling thanks, Ash turned around and began making his way to his room when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning round he saw that it was a face that he remembered from a long time ago. Even though Ash remembered Gary, he didn't seem to recognise Ash.

"Hey there stranger. I'm guessing you're new here then I presume? I'm the Gym leader here and I've battled everyone living here so I know a new face when I see it" he said before putting out a hand. "Gary Oak. Gym leader of Viridian"

"Red Satoshi; Pallet Town" Ash said grasping Gary's hand and shaking it. "You're right I am new here. I've been away for a long time, so it's been a while since I've been here" he said looking around.

"I see. Do you fancy a battle? I'm free for the next hour or so, and I fancy a battle. How about it?"

"As much as I would like to, I have to go and rest up. My Pokémon and me have to get some sleep" he said, pointing to his belt and Pikachu who was by his feet before he turned around and began walking away.

"Oh I see, you're a chicken then? Too afraid to face a gym leader? Pathetic" Gary shouted after him, and it was the last word which made Ash stop and turn around.

"Oh, it's not that I'm afraid. It's just I'm afraid of me crushing you completely" he said with a smile.

"Oh is that right then? I challenge you Red, right here, right now."

"Fine, I can use a bit of practice. Pikachu, let's do this."

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><p>Author Note: So yeah, a rather short chapter this time, but this one had a lot of re-editing in it with what was happening. I'd also like to put something forward as well; I have AS exams starting in a few weeks time. This won't stop me posting up some chapters, but it might mean that in order for me not to get too stressed with editing and revision, I might have to bump the posting time to maybe 2 weeks possibly. It all depends on how everything is going.<p>

So see you next time folks, and don't gorget to leave a review or comment ont he story so far.


	5. The Battle

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon at all.

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><p>Ash had paused for a moment while Gary had left the building in order to go get the battlefield ready for the battle; was he really getting into the swing of things so quickly? He didn't really want to start with Gary at all seeing as he hadn't done anything wrong, but maybe it would be a good bit of practice.<br>Shrugging his shoulders, he went outside where there was a slight breeze in the air, but it was nothing for Ash; he had dealt with much worse weather conditions than this before, so he could deal with this.  
>Gary was leaning on a metal gate as he waited for Red to make his way out of the Pokecenter, and as soon as he noticed him he waved his arm in the air to grab his attention before walking into the closed off area.<p>

The actual area wasn't that impressive, with the floor being made off gravel, with the odd bump in the floor, presumably from all the battles that must have taken place here in the past. Being the challenger, Gary made his way over to the other side of the field before giving Red a good look over, in order to assess what he would be like in a battle.

Over the past couple of years since he had been appointed the gym leader, he had taken part in numerous of battles, all in which he had been able to see the multiple skills of different trainers. It had allowed him to get the just of the power of a trainer before they even sent out their first pokemon. But for some reason, he couldn't get anything out of Red at all; his posture and attitude were so relaxed it was as if he was frozen.

"God damn it, why has it always got to be the mysterious ones?" muttered Gary who reached down to his belt and picked out a battered pokeball. "Blastoise, time to battle!" Gary shouted as he threw the ball out to the field; in a flash of light, a large blue turtle stretched out its limbs before letting out a huge roar in the air. "Good ol' Blastoise here hasn't had a decent battle in a while, so a quick brief battle will get it ready for anything in the gym!" Gary said whilst placing his left hand in his pocket, waiting for Red to make his move.

"Interesting choice" Ash thought before giving a slight smile. Pikachu began to make his way to the field as he prepared to jump off Ash's shoulder, but he put a hand up to stop him. "Not now buddy; I want to make this interesting for the minute." Ash said before grabbing a ball. "Typhlosion battle stance Alpha." Ash said with a slight throw of his wrist. Out of the ball came the bearlike pokemon which its back was covered in fire. Gary spluttered a cough as to why Red was sending out a fire type against his Blastoise. Regardless though, he let out a small smirk at how easy this battle was, until the fire type went down onto all fours and let out an even mightier roar than the Blastoise had just moments ago.

Gary had to clamp his hands around his ears from the roar, and it was so loud that it had even caused Blastoise to flinch as well. However, what was really shocking was that Red was just smiling easily as he watched the duo in front of him. "Err… Right then." Gary said, trying not to let his voice betray him at all. "Blastoise, let's make this quick then. Water Pulse." Gary said, hoping that a straight out water attack would put the fire type in a troublesome position.

Blastoise gave a small grunt before it placed its hands in front of him and closed his eyes; suddenly a small ball of water appeared in-between its hands. With a fluid movement, the Blastoise opened its eyes and sent it flying at the Typhlosion. As the ball was sent flying in the air, it began to expand greatly due to the air pushing against it so quickly.

"Take it." Ash said without even flinching at all. Gary was surprised by what he heard and he expected the fire type to actually disregard what Red has said and just move out of the way before it would be hit. He was disproved wrong when it nodded and took it face on. Blastoise had been Gary's starter since he started his journey, so was constantly making sure that it was his most powerful pokemon, and he had trained it so that even super effective moves against it would not cause as much pain. But he was shocked when the Typhlosion just shrugged off the attack as if it was nothing at all.

"Well done Ty. Now let's make this interesting. Flame charge" Ash said whilst inspecting his hand, before giving a brief glance upwards to see what was going to happen. The Volcano pokemon just grinned, before it pumped out its arms and giving an almighty roar. As soon as this finished, his whole body was covered in fire and in no time at all, it had sprung on its legs and crashed into the Blastoise who was pushed backwards as it had managed to go onto all fours before it was hit.

Gary was shocked at the raw power this fire type possessed. Normally a fire type move would do nothing against a water type, but this was something new to Gary; how come that attack was able to do so much damage to Blastoise in one hit, as already its body was covered in scorch marks.

"Blastoise use….ugh….. I don't know." Gary said with his mouth wide open as he tried to grasp at some moves he could get Blastoise to use. He actually didn't know what to do at all; after just watching the fire type take that move head on, he had no clue as to what it could be capable of doing at all.

"A bit confused are we?" Ash said with a slight smile on his face. "Have no idea how a fire type move could do damage to a water type in just one go?" Ash said before looking at his hand again. "Here's a bit of knowledge for you. Blastoise have a massive shell surrounding their body which is why they have some extraordinary defences. However I discovered that in fact they have weak points surrounding their body. The main place is their abdomen, but that's quite obvious to any normal trainer. I however trained Ty here to aim for the less known spot on the body; the area between its arms and legs." Ash said, finally looking up from his hand.

"I'm not going to let this drag on any more now; let's just get this done with then shall we? Flame charge again" Ash said. The fire type gave a small nod as the command, but instead on staying on all fours, he stood up on his hind legs as he glared at the water type. Taking in a deep breath, he gave another roar, which wasn't as loud as earlier on, in the direction at the water type before its body was set alight in a deep orange fire, and quicker than moments before it sprung towards the Blastoise.

However, Gary was half expecting this Red to command the Typhlosion to go in for the direct attack once again after he had told him about the weak point, so he called out the only move which he could think off which would help.

"Blastoise, rapid spin now!" he shouted, and Blastoise gave a small grunt before it disappeared into its shell and begun spinning at an unlikely speed for its size. Just before it was hit, Blastoise suddenly disappeared in mid-air, to the confusion of Typhlosion, and just as it began to turn around to see where the Turtle had disappeared to it was slammed in its side, before it crumpled on the ground.

"Hmm, well that was a bit too easy, but anyways. Nicely done mate. Now use hydro pump to finish it off." Gary pointed at the fire type that was slowly getting back onto its feet from the surprise attack. He felt that if this attack landed, he would surely have the battle in the bag. However, he was curious about why Red hadn't made a single command towards his fire type to get up quicker and to retaliate with its own move; shaking his head at the strangeness, he turned his head back to the battle so he could see his starter give the finishing move.

Blastoise was also now very confident as it felt the pressure beginning to build up in its cannons on its back. Giving a massive grunt, he fired the massive pressure bursts at the crouched fire type; it was sure that the Typhlosion wouldn't be getting up again, and it began heading back towards his trainer with a grin on his face. However, he was puzzled by the look Gary had on his face; turning around slowly the Blastoise adopted the same expression when he saw the unthinkable in front of him. The Typhlosion had actually managed to stand back up on its feet once again, even though it was drenched in what either looked like water or sweat.

"I must say, a strong Blastoise you have with you Gary. But its time to finish this battle of now anyway. Typhlosion, adopt battle move Alpha Blaze." Ash said, with a slight grin on his face.

Giving a weak grin, Typhlosion closed its eyes and focused all of its power into his hands, where slowly a small ball of fire was forming in-between them. With a sudden fluid movement for the state he was in, the Typhlosion flung the ball into the sky as if it was a baseball. Instantly, the surrounding the battle field had increased drastically, and Gary could feel the specks of perspiration forming on the back of his neck.

"That's going to do nothing at all; if you're planning to stop my water moves power, I have a whole lot of moves up my sleeve." Gary snorted as the Typhlosion began charging towards Blastoise once again. "Rapid spin again" he said with a smug grin on his face. Giving a wide smile, Blastoise shrunk back into its shell and began spinning, and once it felt that Typhlosion was close it spun upwards and did a U-turn as he began his descent to crash into it again.

However, all he felt in the next 10 seconds was intense pain. Even though it didn't know what had happened, Gary saw everything that was happening in front of him. Just as Blastoise began to ascend, the Typhlosion had managed to lie flat on the ground as the water type had spun above it. Then with some incredible flexibility it performed a simple backflip as its right fist began glowing a dull yellow colour; as soon as it managed to land on its feet it jumped at the still spinning turtle and landed an uppercut punch to its stomach.

"But….how the….. How the hell did your pokemon manage to do that? And what move did he just use?" Gary spluttered. At the same time, Blastoise managed to get back up on its feet, but when it tried to get to Gary, it staggered slightly before falling onto one knee.

"It was easy to be honest" Ash began, waving a hand at Typhlosion to take a rest. "I knew you were going to use rapid spin to stop the attack. That's why I said to Ty to use sunny day, as it was never a reason to boost my attacks not in order to stop you from using you're water moves. It's actually a code name for another move." Ash said, whilst walking over to Typhlosion as he gave it a pat on the back.

"Thunder punch can be quite a useful move to know sometimes; especially when you don't have the type advantage. That's why I never call it out loud as it gives away the surprise, and who would want to ruin a surprise in the first place at all." Ash said, before giving a slight chuckle.

"OK, that's fair enough. But how did Typhlosion become so fast? You never used a stat move, like agility at all. I was watching every single move you made as well." Gary said, completely bewildered at what he had just witnessed happened in the past seconds.

"Well, the thing is I did in a rather ninja way. Flame Charge is a quite useful move if you happen to know about it. As well as it having the nice idea of giving Typhlosion of STAB, it allows the user to have its speed to be raised as well." Ash said, before returning Typhlosion back into his ball. "Maybe next time you should do some research into pokemon moves more instead of focusing on whatever research you're doing at the minute Gary." Ash said, and with a flick of his hand to wave goodbye, he turned around and headed back towards the pokemon centre.

Gary just stood there, watching him go off into the distance before returning Blastoise back to his ball with a small sympathetic smile on his face. Clenching his hand, Gary was determined to get revenge. No one told him what he should have to do in his life at all. No one.

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><p>Author Note: So here's the update. Been busy with an AS Photography Exam recently with having to get everything ready for it. No exams this week at all for the minute, I have my first proper AS exam on the 14th May, so I'll post the next chapter on the Sunday that week.<br>As always, enjoy the chapter, and review with any suggestions you have!


	6. Old Reunion

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon at all.

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><p>Ash was quite chuffed with himself, as even though Gary wasn't one of the so called "friends", it felt nice to humiliate him in some way; especially in Ash's most preferred way. However, he knew that he couldn't stay in Viridian for too long, as word would spread that the mighty Gary had been beaten, so everyone would want to battle Ash now.<p>

Sighing at this thought, Ash made his way to the Pokémon centre, before going up to his room to collect his belongings. Just as he was about to leave, he decided to make some changes for the journey ahead, so he walked over to the nearest phone. The phone rang for a brief couple of seconds before Professor Oak picked up the phone, and Ash could see from the man's eyes that something had happened.

"Oh Ash, I'm so glad you called; I've needed to speak with you."

"You ok Professor; you look a bit shaken up?"

"Well Ash I'm not ok to be honest." The professor said, before retelling Ash of the events that had taken place just after he had left. The actual visit had left the professor shaken up, although when Ash asked if he should come back, the professor adamantly said no without explaining why.

"Well if you're sure professor. Anyway, I'd like to make a change of Pokémon please for the journey up ahead please. So this is what I want you to do…." Ash said before telling Oak which Pokémon he wanted. Oak gave a perplexed look before shrugging. He briefly went off the screen where sounds of pokeballs being used to return some Pokémon back, when Oak appeared suddenly with the six pokeballs in hand. With Ash giving a short and curt nod, he placed his balls into the transceiver at the same time as Oak, where shortly electric sparks were floating around the balls, and in a flash of white they disappeared. Nothing happened for about a minute, until sparks were once seen again, and in another flash of white 5 new balls appeared.

Thanking Oak for his time, Ash collected the balls and placed them on his belt, before ending the call. He had noticed that a few trainers were looking around for him already, so he made a hasty exit out of the poke-centre.

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Meanwhile, a group of people were in deep thought looking at a pile of papers between them, when 2 large black oak doors were opened, and in walked Proton, walking from a slight limp from his meeting with Ash's Pokémon. Even though he was hurt, he still had a grin on his face, for he knew he had completed his mission.

"Leaders, I have done what you have asked for. I went to Oak's to test the strength of Ash's Pokémon, and I must say just from his newest additions, they are very strong indeed." He said with a grin, before placing a sheet on the table, sliding it down to them. "I made an estimated guess on a scale of 1 to 10 on the strength of his Pokémon, so I hope this is all in order for you."

"Thank you Proton, a job well done indeed. Now if you would excuse us, we have to go over these readings with the scientists." A figure said from then top, when all 4 stood up and headed towards a door at the end of them room.

However one figure stayed behind and waited for the others to go before he turned around. "Proton, well done on the mission, however I was wondering if you completed my mission as well…?" the figure said, holding onto a cane as he walked toward the young man.

"Sir, I took the Pokémon you gave to me and I placed them up against one of the Pokémon. I'm hoping that these will help towards your studies now I hope?" Proton said with a serious face as he unclipped 2 pokeballs from his waist before passing them to the man. Without another single word, he headed out the same way he came. As soon as he had left, the man gave a short cackle as he grasped onto the balls. Soon his plans would come into effect, but for them moment more research was needed to be conducted. He walked out of the door, thinking how to experiment on the Pokémon he had in his grasps now, especially with projects beginning to develop fully now.

Walking through Viridian Forest was bringing some old memories back into Ash's mind; he missed the good old days when everything was all care free and friendly, but that was before everything had changed. He remembered when he came rushing through the forest on that fateful day, only for the past to catch up on him with all the spearows attacking him with revenge for what Pikachu did to them on his first day. It was only by chance that Pidgeot was still around and had scared them off that Ash had survived.

It was now that Ash decided to keep to his promise he made a while ago, so he grabbed one of his balls and called out his first ever flying type. He was silent for a minute as he waited for Pidgeot to remember where he was; he gave a squawk of recollection as he remembered which was when Ash spoke.

"Pidgeot, you've been with me for a while now, and I know you have missed this place so much." Ash said as he grasped his hands together, staring at the ground whilst he debated the next choice of words that he was going to say. Even though he never wanted to do this at all, he felt that for the moment it would be the next course of action. "Pidgeot, I want you to stay here in the forest and go look for your flock. Look after them and care for them." Ash said with a thin smile, not wanting any of the emotions take over his body. He was stronger than this, but it was never easy to say goodbye to a dear friend.

Pidgeot just stared at Ash as if he was a crazy fool, wondering what on earth could have made him decide to suddenly come out with this decision, but the realization came crashing down to earth when he too remembered the promise that his trainer made to him as well. Tears pricked at the bird's eye as he came to grips with what was said, before he lot out a mighty sound from his beak as he started flapping his wings in the air. It only took a matter of seconds before he was above the trees, looking down at his master, trainer…friend. He waved with one wing to Ash before setting off into the sun, looking into the forest for his flock so that once again, he would be able to look after them. For Ash, it was a hard thing for him to do, but nevertheless he was proud that at least he kept to a promise he had made so long ago. He looked up into the sky and smiled, happy that for a moment in time, there was something that he had done right.  
>However, there were other pressing matters that he had to do in his short amount of time, and Pewter city was not that far ahead.<p>

_Beware Forrest. Your time as a cocky gym leader has come to a halt. Now the time for the light to shine a way through you has arrived. Prepare to be crushed. _ Ash clenched a fist as he punched his other hand as the thought went running through his mind, before he started walking in the direction of the rock gym town, ready to start his mission at last.

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It was just after six in the evening when Ash had finally made his way into Pewter city; not much had changed since he had last been here. The houses were the same as he walked around although it did look much cleaner than before. Even the pokecenter was in the same place when he last came here all those many years ago. It seemed like such a short time ago as he could remember the events clearly in his head, but he pushed them aside when he remembered the task that was at hand.

He signed in pretty quickly and managed to get one of the few remaining rooms left over; he figured that seeing as it was still quite early, there was time to kill so he was going to have a little snoop around the area. He stepped out of the pokecenter and took in a deep breath of the air of the city, where the sounds of battling caught his attention.  
>It seemed like they were behind the pokecenter, and with his curiosity being picked it he walked behind, and was surprised to see so many trainers battling it out with such advanced Pokémon. Intrigued by this, he took a seat upon a bench and watched the trainers battling it out. Most of them were perfecting moves and techniques, with just under a quarter were sparring against other trainers.<br>He wasn't trying to be mean or anything, but most of the trainers there were ok. There was no special talent emerging at all in anything, causing his hopes to slowly dimmer as his chances of getting a good battle were now out of arms distance. Sighing, he decided to go visit the house of the gym leader.

It didn't take too long to get there at all, but he was surprised to see a metal fence surrounding the gym and the house that was attached to it. Chuckling slightly, he grasped the metal lock in his left hand before looking around. Content that he was alone, a blue light dimmed slowly, before a clink was heard as the lock came undone. Slipping in quietly, Ash crouched his way over to the window in which he had first seen the double life in which his true friend Brock was living.  
>Once again, he wasn't surprised to see his friend rushing around with his siblings, cooking and looking after him. A small smile crept onto his face as he saw this, but he frowned when he saw Forrest waltz into the room with the aroma of arrogance surrounding him. Ash couldn't make out what was being said, but it seemed as if Forrest was belittling Brock in front of his sibling, who all seemed to be giggling. Brock on the other hand wasn't doing much apart from nodding with what was being said, before rushing back to doing his duties.<p>

He wasn't going to lie. Ash was pissed off that his friend was being taken advantage off. He had seen enough to know that this was the case. Well, that wasn't going to happen anymore. Tomorrow Forrest would get his sweet deserts and a taste of humiliation as well. Standing up, Ash made his way out of the area, locking the fence shut before making his way back to the pokecenter, smiling knowing that everything had all begun.

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><p>Author's Note: So, there we go, another chapter in the system. I already have what the "experiments" are going to be in my mind, so probably in a couple of chapter's I'll start revealing it a bit more maybe. Next chapter is another battle, as well as the introduction of 2 new characters, who I'm still debating on whether to make them a regular team. But apart from that, exams start for me tomorrow (woop woop...) so I'll be gone for the nect couple of weeks. Next update will be 2 weeks today though, so I'll see you all then!<p>

~sheep261


	7. Crashing Down to Earth

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon at all...

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><p>He had woken early after discovering from Nurse Joy that the majority of the trainers in the area preferred to battle Forrest around mid-day, so if he wanted to get a good battle he would want to get there early.<br>It didn't take him long to get back to the gym, noticing that in fact the fence was already open, as well as the front door. Slipping in, he was surprised to see a battle was already going on. He was gobsmacked when he saw that the challenger was in fact using a Togekiss and was battling a Golem; it wasn't the nicest of match ups, but if the Togekiss was trained well enough then it could stand a chance. Making his way over to the stands, he noticed that there was a girl cheering on the boy, bringing back the memories of how his past friends used to do that.

However Ash soon found out that it wasn't the nicest of battles ever; the Togekiss was lacking in any decent moves that could deal any harmful damage, and was relying on its Serene Grace ability more often than not. The Golem wasn't that good as well, it just waited patiently whilst dodging moves with protect, before using a more deadly move such as stone edge when the Togekiss was close enough. Ash was tempted to shout out to the trainer to do something more useful, but he bit his tongue back in order to keep his presence sealed. It was a good timing as well, as the Togekiss finally went down after a rollout attack.

"Come on Josh. That what…the fifth battle we've had now, and yet my brilliance is still destroying you. Looks like you're going to be stuck here for a while longer now then." Forrest said with a laugh as he recalled his Golem back to his ball, before snapping his fingers. It was only then that Ash noticed Brock residing in the shadows as he scuttled forward as grabbed Golem's ball and placed it in what seemed to be a healing machine, before he came back and placed the ball back in Forrest's hands.

"Josh! I told you that your strategy wasn't going to work, but like always you ignore me! When are you going to learn?" The girl shouted out as Josh made his way up into the stands.

"Like I said Cindy, this is my battle and my battle alone! I don't need your advice at all." Josh snorted as he sat down, obviously annoyed at having lost again.

"Your friend is right you know. You focus too much on attacking rather than sitting back and observing; if I had been battling you then, you wouldn't have been standing that long at all. Forrest isn't that good at all, but it was your lack of skill that held you back." Ash said with his eyes closed. Both Josh and Cindy were both shocked at how a trainer merely butted into their conversation, let alone not noticing him before, but it was Forrest's reaction that actually snapped Ash's eyes open.

"What do you mean not good? I'll have you know that I'm the best gym leader that there is out there, and even the elite 4 have trouble battling against me! So why do you have the right to claim that I'm not that good at all?" Forrest fumed, angry that he was being put down by a no-body.

"Simple, I'll show you in a battle. 1v1 with your strongest against my strongest. And you might want to take notes Josh if I was you." Ash said before he jumped from the stands and onto the pitch, ignoring the looks he was receiving from the two teenagers. Forrest was speechless at what had been said, but he wasn't going to do anything at all. "Fine! I'll battle you and you will take back what you said….What was your name again?"

"The name's Red. A name you won't forget in a long time."

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Ash just made his way over to his place on the battlefield as Forrest did the same; for the first time in a long time he was actually looking forward to a battle. Sure the one he had not long ago against Gary was ok, but it didn't bring back hardly any of his fighting passion though. That's why he was looking forward to this battle; where he could show of his flair and ability easily.

"The battle between the challenger Red and the gym leader Forest shall commence. It shall be a 1 vs. 1 battle with no substitutions. Begin!" Brock said from the centre of the battlefield, lacking any enthusiasm inside him at all as he took the role of the referee for the match.

"Pikachu, up and running lets go." Ash said quietly to his partner, who was perching on shoulder. It was strange Brock thought; never had he seen a pokemon come forward with an electric pokemon in a battle, and the only person that had done that was… No. He was long gone. Everyone had said he had just disappeared into thin air.

"Huh a measly Pikachu; this will be easier than expected. Rhyperior, blast him away." Forest said with a cocky grin on his face before throwing out a pokeball onto the field; out of it materialised the drill Pokémon. Ash had seen many of these in his travels, but this one certainly looked like the most powerful one he had encountered; perhaps this wouldn't be as boring as he thought it would be.

"Rhyperior, rock wrecker to finish this off quickly; Brock's got to make my dinner soon." the teenager said with a cocky grin. The rock type roaring in agreement as it began glowing a dull orange and green colour as it raised its arms slowly in the air. Within seconds, parts of the ground around it quickly broke away to form a massive rock in front of it, which was continuously growing larger by the second. Placing its arms on the rock, the Rhyperior closed its eyes for a second before giving a grunt, the Rhyperior pushed it towards the mouse Pokémon who just stood there watching the rock.

The rock closed in rapidly, and Forest have a cheer if delight when he saw that the attack was going to land direct; however he failed to notice Ash whisper a command to Pikachu, who nodded as he glowed a light blue colour. The rock went flying into Pikachu while Rhyperior roared in victory whilst flexing its arms; Forrest have a triumph look as he began to grab Rhyperior's ball, before he was stopped by Ash's waving hand in the air.

"I wouldn't be so hasty if I was you; Pikachu attack position Bravo." Ash said with a grin on his face; the Pikachu on the floor began wobbling, until it melted and another Pikachu appeared from it.

"Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" it said with a smile on its face before it started glowing pinkish; but this was not the end, as the electric mouse began doing some small stretches as it moved its body from one side to the other. Without any warning he rushed forward at an extraordinary speed towards the rock type with its hands glowing white.

The rock type had no chance to defend itself as it was struck in the head. The attack obviously hurt as it clutched its head in roared out in agony. Brock on the other hand was simply flabbergasted at what had happened; how on earth had a little electric pokemon like that been able to survive such powerful moves in no time at all? It was simply remarkable how powerful it must have been.

"What the...? How the hell could a stupid mouse like yours survive a super power attack like that, and then come and give massive damage to me instead?"

"Simple." Ash said as he looked at his hand. "It's called substitute, a move that even the most experienced trainers in the world fail to actually take note of its existence."

"Are you calling me inexperienced?"

"No not at all. I'm calling you arrogant and inexperienced as well."

"That's coming from a beginner trainer as well!"

"Beginner? Hardly the word in fact...How about 10 times as experienced as you, with all the badges of Kanto as well." Ash said as he pulled out his case, showing his gleaming badges. It wasn't just these that were shiny; he kept all his badges shiny as a reminder to him of the good times he had in his past life.

"But how have you got the Boulder Badge? Only a few people have actually been able to beat me, and I've remembered all of their faces as well."

"Well that's your problem you have to try and think about. But let's get back to the battle I think; Pikachu attack position Gin" Ash said with a sly grin in his face. Pikachu nodded before he began glowing again, but this time a yellow colour.

"Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work at all. Rhyperior earthquake now!" Forrest shouted out, trembling at the aspect of losing to an unknown trainer who was battling him with the type disadvantage as well. It just didn't seem right at all in his mind, but regardless he wasn't going to lose at all.

The rock type let out a huge roar as it stamped its foot hard on the ground, sending the shock waves flying across the ground. However Pikachu had merely stood up on its tail with a smug grin plastered all over its face. This made the Rhyperior to go over the top as a massive vein appeared on its head as it started charging forward at the electric mouse. With a small giggle Pikachu just waited for the dual type to come closer, before suddenly it appeared right behind the rock type in the blink of the eye.  
>Needless to say this was infuriating the Rhyperior immensely as it turned around, and with a grunt it started running at Pikachu again.<p>

"God damn it; Rhyperior do something now! Get rid of that pesky Pikachu! I have a reputation to hold up here, and you're not doing a very good job!" Forrest shouted as he waved his hands in all random directions, his rage getting to the better of him.  
>Rhyperior on the other hand just gave a snort at his trainer's reaction, before he raised his arms in the air. With a small grunt and repositioning of his feet, the ground around the dual type began wobbling, until large chunks began floating up. With some hidden mental power, the Rock Type shoved the rocks at the electric type, until more and more stones came up, with the same pattern happening over and over again.<p>

However once again Pikachu was not fazed by this at all; it actually just gave a small yawn as it looked lazily on at the oncoming armada of stones coming in his direction. With one swift movement, his body began producing all sorts of sparks before he began spinning on its tail, until its whole body was a blur. What was impressive though was that whenever any on the jagged stones came in its direction, they were quickly turned into dust via the bolts of lightning that were being emitted from the Pikachu's body.

After a while, the Rhyperior had to stop to gain its breath back, and all it did was glare at the rodent that had returned back onto its feet, with a few brushed of dirt covering its coat of fur. "Now now Pikachu, there's no need to show off now at all." Ash said with a slight chuckle as he looked on at his starter; Forrest was simply flabbergasted at what to say, whereas Brock's eyes has closed into small slits…well, they were already small slits, but they were even smaller than before. Where on earth had Red managed to get that move from, and more importantly how did he and his Pikachu know how to use it.

"Pikachu finish this off now." Ash said with a yawn. As much as he had looked forward to crushing Forrest, it had been a bit of a disappointment really. Pikachu nodded slightly before its body began glowing a bright green; it was if nothing was happening at until the Rhyperior suddenly feel over whilst it was running towards the electric type. The collision it made with the ground was even greater than the earthquake attack it produced moment ago.

"Hmm. I guess this was easier than I thought it would be." Ash said with a shrug as Pikachu made its way back onto his shoulder. "I hope you two were making notes from that battle. See you later Brock." Ash said with a wave as he turned his back on the 4 shocked expressions that were being directed in his direction. But perhaps what was the most shocking was on Brock's face as he tried to comprehend what he had just seen; why had Red said he was going to see him later? Brock had the niggling feeling that he had seen Red before, but where was it?

Moments after Ash had left, Josh and Cindy were up on their feet after the trainer, hoping to try and get some more tips form him on how to do better; in no time at all, Brock was left on his own as Forrest had stormed out of their gym in a huff, tears in his eyes as the embarrassment of being made a fool. Brock slowly reached into his trouser pockets and pulled out the old red cap from his pocket; ever since he had been told that Ash had just left with no warning, he had searched the entire area for Ash, and his whole family had to convince him that he was gone when they presented him the hat that had been found on the ground. It seemed impossible, but there was that slight chance perhaps…

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><p>Author Note: Well here's the next chapter for the story. Thanks to korne-pokemon-luv for pointing out the mistake on the pokeballs; I had accidently pressed 6 instead of 5, but I've gone and changed it now. So I left on a mini cliffhanger as to what Brock is going to do, but you will have to wait unitl the next chapter comes up to see what happens :D And I think its time to show one of the new pokemon as well. So as always, review with your opinions, and I'll see you next time!<p> 


	8. New Life

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon at all

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><p>Perhaps it was just fate for Ash when he gathered his possessions from the Pokemon Centre, only to be greeted by Josh and Cindy at the door. Throughout all of his journeys he had been accompanied by some form of travelling partners, and he gave a laugh at the irony of life providing with the chance to have some more for his new "journey".<p>

"You…You're not a new trainer are you?" Cindy said to break the silence as they followed Ash out of the door as he made his way towards Mt Moon, intent on reaching Cerulean City before the end of the week.

"No, I'm not a new trainer. Far from it in fact. I've been a longer trainer probably from the combined years you two have been training." Ash said as he marched on forward, hoping that they would get the message to leave him alone.

"Then why did you come back to Pewter then? We saw all of the Kanto badges you have, so why would you want to come back to get the badge again?" Cindy asked, not giving up at all.

"In my past life, some things… happened in which my life was turned over. There are things for me to do before I lose the chance. Coming to Pewter and battling Forest was one of them." Ash said with a sigh, tempted just to get out of here as quick as possible.

Throughout the walk, Josh had been staring down at the floor, not saying a single word at all, until he asked the question that had been burning in his mind since the gym.

"What did you mean yesterday that I lost from my lack of skill?" He asked, causing Ash to stop in his tracks. Even though he couldn't see Josh's face, he couldn't help but let out a smile. "You know, when I saw you battling, you reminded me of what I used to be when I was younger. Rash in battling, going out with full power without taking a step back and looking at the situation. I'm not denying you're not a strong battler, but if I was in your situation with your Togekiss, there would have been different things that I would have chosen."

"And what would of those been?"

"Use a status booting move, before going in with a move. Togekiss's are known for the amazing special attack powers, as well as being graced with the special ability Serene Grace, which I hopefully don't need to tell you about." He said with a raised eyebrow, with Josh giving a slow nod as he remembered the ability. "Good. I would have used a move such as Light Screen or Reflect to lower the damage of the rock moves, before moving in with a move such as Water Pulse or Magical Leaf, which I presume your Togekiss doesn't know?"

"…No."

"Then I would advise you go out and teach your pokemon those moves, especially Water Pulse which would be useful with the Serene Grace ability." Ash said as he continued walking, leaving Josh and Cindy looking at each other before they began running to catch up with him.

"Hey! You have no right to tell my brother what to do at all! He can do what he wants, and he can teach his pokemon whatever the hell he wants. If you're so confident in the aspect of using some status moves, then I challenge you to a 1v1 battle, my strongest against any of your pokemon." Cindy shouted as he rushed past Ash and stood in front of him, holding out a pokeball.

Ash merely raised an eyebrow before smiling. A test perhaps? Maybe it would be good to have some partners with him, but they would have to prove themselves, so why not through a battle? "Sure, why not? Let's do this."

(Time skip 10 minutes, open grass field, on the edge on Mt Moon)

"This will b challenge with the challenger Cindy against Red. Trainers send out your pokemon." Josh said from the middle of the pitch, acting as the referee even though he was itching to see his Big Sister finally use him in a battle.

"Tank go, smash this person for insulting Josh!" Cindy said as he flung out a dusk ball, revealing a large dinosaur pokemon which was covered in green battle armour.

"Well, this is a surprise. Let's see how you like this then." Ash said as he flung out a normal red pokeball to the field, him too sending out the same dinosaur pokemon in the green armour, before giving out an all mighty roar, powerful enough to make Cindy take a couple of steps backwards from the power.

"Ummm…this battle will therefore be between Tyranitar and Tyranitar…Go!" Josh said, whimpering slightly from the sight of the two giants before leaping behind a bush until only his head was visible, not wanting to get close to them at all. Ash just gave a small smile as he waved his hand in the air, indicating that she could have the first move.

"Fine, but you're going to regret that! Tank, lets whip up the sand, and proceed with a flamethrower." Cindy shouted, with a slight smirk on her face. Tank nodded before shifting back onto his right leg, just as his tail started whipping back and forth. Ash just merely stood where he was as the sand from the ground was tossed up, before it mysteriously began spiralling in tornado fashion. In no time at all, it was impossible to see at all.

"Now, let loose the fire!" Cindy shouted with a whoop. Tank gave a roar before it released the blast of fire from its mouth towards the other Tyranitar.

"Nice idea with using the combination of the sandstorm and the flamethrower; as well as getting the fire, you're making parts of glass coming towards me as well. A good mixture, but unfortunately not good enough. Block it." Ash said with a grin, just as the flamethrower as the tiny, razor sharp mixture of glass was coming in their direction. His Tyranitar just yawned as it slammed a foot into the ground, sending up multiple rocks that formed together to make a shield, effectively blocking the fire from reaching him at all.

"What the…? Never mind. Tank, follow up with screech, then go in with Brick Break." Cindy said, wanting to take the other pokemon by surprise. Tank gritted its mouth before releasing an ear piercing noise from its mouth; even for however long they had trained in their various places, there was nothing they could do to stop the noise of the screech.

"Crap…Ty polish up quickly." Ash snarled once the ringing had gone; Ty nodded as it acted quickly by rubbing its arms all over its body, somewhat begging to make its body shinier and more flexible. However even with the newfound speed, Tank had managed to gain up on it, launching the devastating chop onto its side, forcing it backwards.

"Hell yeah! Now that's how you use a strategy!" Cindy laughed as she clapped her hands together. "Well done Tank, you can have a nice long-"

"Not so fast actually. If you think one hit is going to knock my Tyranitar out, then you are mistaken. Rock Slide." Cindy just looked on with a dazed expression as she tried to look through the sandstorm, when suddenly it slowly was turning much thicker than it was a couple of seconds ago. Tank too was looking around slowly, trying to comprehend what was happening, when it was struck in the face by multiple chucks of rock. It was taken by surprise so much that he fell over onto the ground, before giving off a roar in ager.

"It was a good idea to use screech to boost the damage of the Brick Break, but as you can see," Ash said as the storm died down, only to be replaced with the sun glowing brightly above, only to reveal his Tyranitar standing tall. "It hardly did anything at all."

"So? Yours must be close to fainting any second now? So what if it's standing now, it won't be in a second. Tank, Focus Blast it out of here." Cindy snarled; she wasn't going to let him show her up, especially in front of her brother.

"Fine by that. Ty, prepare for retribution."

Both of the Tyranitar's nodded as they began doing their own thing; Tank began charging up a bright orange ball in its hands, just as Ty shifted onto his left foot and began breathing in slowly. Tank gave a roar as it launched the sphere at its foe, which just stood firm as it occasionally rubbed its body here and there as the attack hurtled towards it.  
>The resulting collision formed a small shockwave as smoke trailed everywhere, but once it cleared it revealed Tank to be the one on the floor with Ty standing up above it with a dark outline around its body, before it diminished quickly.<p>

"But…But how? I saw the attack hit your pokemon; it should be the one that's on the floor, not mine!"

"That's true, but you forget that Tyranitar's excel in Attack, so a special move like Focus blast wouldn't do as much damage. As for why my pokemon is still standing, all be it is panting heavily, I had it use Curse and Rock Polish continuously so that it would be ready for what would happen."

"And what's that?"

"A nice simple move really. Focus Blast is a very powerful move, so by using Payback, a move that retaliates with double the power of the move used against it, with the addition of Curse boosting up Ty's attack it was going to be over in no time at all. Especially with Rock Polish allowing mine to get to yours in no time at all." Ash said as he walked over to his pokemon and patted it on the back, before returning him back to his ball.

"Now that battle is over, if you want to, you can-" Ash started to say, until he turned around and spotted the lone pokemon that was lying underneath the tree he was standing by a couple of minutes ago. "Oh for Arceus' sake Pikachu, you really need to lay off the Ketchup. Look at yourself, its everywhere!" Ash groaned he shook his head in disbelief at his starter; Pikachu would go on to say later on that it was Ash's fault for leaving the bottle in there anyway, and he couldn't resist it at all.

"Never mind. As I was saying, if you want to, you can join me on my journey for a while, but if you want to come, you better decide quickly." Ash said as he picked up the electric type in his arms before heading off towards Mt Moon. Even though he hadn't heard a single thing as of yet, he knew what was going to happen in the next 10 or so seconds.

Josh and Cindy didn't even need to say anything as they looked at each other before scrambling for their bags as they ran towards Ash, well Red for them, for who knows what would await them.

* * *

><p>It was just a door with a sign saying "This room is under refurbishment. Do not enter." Most people in the building just walked past it without a second thought at all; with them either being too busy with the task's they had been given or that they just ignored it. Perhaps this was a good thing really, for appearances tend to deceive most people.<br>Behind the wooden door was an eerie long corridor with bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, until after the walk you came towards a metal door, with only a simple lock key preventing you from getting to the over side. But what was over there though?

If you were lucky enough to actually get behind here, you would have seen what seemed to be an abandoned laboratory, with dust gathering over multiple test tube's being connected to the wall. However, there was a source of light snaking its way through the cracks, where it led to the centre of the room, where there was a hunched over person looking at two pokemon lying on a medical table. Multiple tubes and wires were connected to the pokemon, as the person suddenly stood up tall from his hunched position and turned on the spot as he slowly made his way to a computer via the aide of a walking stick.

With a slight smile, he pressed a button on the keyboard which revealed a small hole appearing in the computer. He produced a syringe which he had been carrying in his left hand and removed the vial containing a small black liquid, before placing it in the hole. With a sound of air being rapidly being sucked in, the vial disappeared instantly, before the screen lit up with lines of writing going past rapidly, before finally a small text box appeared on the screen.

With a nod, the enter key was pressed, and then it began moving and changing colour.

The Eevee struggled from where it was strapped to a table; tubes protruding from its body, clear at first until the black liquid from earlier on began flowing through the tubes into its body. A howl was emitted from its mouth as its eyes widened form the shock, before it stopped moving.

All was silent, with the figure watching intently at the Eevee, waiting for the moment he had dreamt of for months.

Suddenly, the straps snapped from the Eevee as it opened as eye, but instead of the normal oak brown eye, this time it was a deep purple colour. Leaping from the table, it slowly stepped towards the figure as black-purple fames began lapping around its body, before it was covered in the glow.

"Finally….it is done." He uttered, smiling from behind the glass as he looked at his creation, before pressing his finger on a buzzer. "Petrel, come down here please. It is time for things to become interesting."

* * *

><p>Author Note: So here is the new chapter! I love the end part in my opinion, as this is something I've wanted to get in for a long long time, so I hope you all wil enjoy this mysterious new subject that will crop up, as well as another surprise to it

Ka-tay's mind: Nice to know that you've decided to come back as well, so I hope you're not disapointed. As regards to Ash's hat, Brock was given it by the "friends" after he was searching for Ash. I'll probably do a flashback of this in more eetail in a later chapter to clear things up a bit. Also with the Professor Oak bit, I thought that saying what happened all over again would be a bit boring, so I cut to the chase and got to the main part.

Anyway's I hope you are all enjoying the story, and I'll see you lot next time for the next installment.


	9. Speed Saves Lives

Hi Guys!

Sheep here and I have some information to give you with regards to the story!

As you might of noticed, there has been a lack of updates on the chapters for the story, and that is becuase of two reasons:

1) After recovering from the loss of muse from exams, it was extremely difficult for me to do any sort of writing at all. I honestly was lacking in any inspiration, and anything I tried writing was a piece of garbage.  
>2) I had some personal issues to attend to which was taking up a lot of my time, so that took up most of the thought process on my brain.<p>

OK, now onto the good news! I'm going on holiday this sunday for about 3 weeks, so although it means no uploads I will be able to sit down and go throuhg my ideas and ultimately start writing up my chapters again. I have a rough idea what I want to happen in the next couple of chapters so its going to make things a bit easier as well I hope.

I do apologise that this couldn't come up sooner, but I've had a lot on my plate recently.

~sheep261


	10. Power Inside

So yeah, Im back again... Oops xD I am very, very, very...I could keep going on here. End of the matter is, sorry I didn't upload for a whole time, but school and university came up, and it was really important for me to get it done, so this slipped my mind . Saying that, I did have half of this already prepared, but I just never got round to finishing it at all xD Anyway, my exams are almost finished now, so I will have plenty of time to focus on these story once again! I have the plot inside my head, and it should be good... but that awaits for when it is written xD So enjoy this chapter, and I'm sorry it's short, but it was something that was needed, and should begin putting in more questions for the future. Byeeeeeeeeeee :P

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><p>Time was running out; moments after Petrel had the received the first call, another one came through with a more urgent voice saying that they had been compromised and that there was very little time until all their hard work would of come to nothing.<p>

It hadn't taken long for him to get to the base and get inside; but instead of the usually tidy room, bunches of papers were flying all over the place; tables were over turned as was multiple chairs.

"Professor…?" Petrel slowly said as he walked in, before his blood froze as he was stopped by the feeling of the cold metal at the back of his head.

"Ah Petrel, it's you. I wasn't expecting you to get here so fast." The professor said as he lowered the gun, before walking over where a black briefcase laid on a table. Surprisingly, this was the only thing that was actually tidy, as there was a bunch of papers tied up via some string in a simple knot, before Petrel noticed that there were 4 different coloured balls sitting in the briefcase. They looked like normal ultra-balls, but instead of the simple yellow strip on top, it was replaced by separate colours for each ball, which were purple, red, blue and brown.

"There isn't much time left I'm afraid. It seems that the big chief here discovered by experiments, and is coming down here as we speak." The professor said as he snapped up the briefcase, before passing it over to Petrel along with a key. "Inside here is all the information that I have gather for the main mission, alongside some help. Find the others, meet up and take a pokemon each for yourselves. Once you've done that, look at the papers to find out your objective."

Suddenly, there was a pounding at the door, before someone shouted out. "Ghetsis, give up! There's no point in trying to hide it all now!"

"Fuck… At least you have the information now. Take the hidden passage out, and make your way as fast out of here. Whatever you do, don't stop."

"But sir…I need to say here to help. It's obvious what's going to happen."

"Petrel, this is no time to argue at all. Leave now, or else you'll be caught up in all of this as well!" Ghetsis shouted before he reached into his pocket, eyes glued to the door that was increasingly becoming unstable from the pounds that was coming from it.

Petrel took one look at his mentor from the past couple of years, before he grasped the briefcase tightly in his hand before running off to the other side of the room. He wasted in no time looking around, ripping off a poster from the wool, revealing a black button. Pressing it, the wall in front of him let off a hiss, before it slid back and to the right, revealing a passageway. Petrel just took in a deep breath, before going into the darkness, leaving the door to close behind him with a clunk.

At the same time, the door collapsed in a heap as a figure in an orange suit walked in slowly, looking around the place as if he was inspecting it to be up to his highest qualities. Eventually, he turned to the person that was in the middle of the room, and gave a small smile.

"So Gio, we meet again it seems, and presumably for the last time." Ghetsis said with a smirk, still with his right hand in his pocket.

"Same to you Ghetsis, it has been too long. But enough with the formalities. I found out what has been going on here in your little lab, and safe to say I think what you've done would be a great investment to Team Rocket. So hand them over and nothing will happen."

"Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Seeing as you know about the experiments, I guess I can tell you the truth." Ghetsis smiled, before sitting down on a chair. "I came to work here for one reason only, and that was to get the necessary equipment that was required for me. You see, I'm ore of what you would say a double agent. My real boss not only wanted to know what was going on here, but he also needed this experiment completed as well. And seeing as everything went to plan and they aren't here anymore, I think everything worked out perfectly." He finished with a smile, almost gloating at Giovanni.

Giovanni cursed silently as the information hit him hard. If this was all true, then the organisation was in deep trouble. The experiments he could live without, but it was the leaked plans that worried him the most, as it would mean that months of planning would be worthless. "I see then… Well thank you for your time here anyway. But unfortunately, you know too much." He said, placing a hand into the inside of his suit, and pulling out a Glock 19. "Nothing personal you know." He shrugged, before pulling on the trigger.

Ghetsis was pushed against the chair as the bullet entered and lodged into his shoulder. He was surprised that he felt no pain at all straight away, but he guessed that it was the adrenaline that was keeping him running at the minute. He attempted to get up, but was sent to the floor when another bullet was fired at his leg, causing him to kneel on the floor. He grimaced as he pressed his hand to his leg, before revealing a palm covered in blood.

Smiling, he reached into his pocket and pulled out via a key chain a black square with a white button neatly into the centre. He gave a sigh as he felt the cold metal being pressed up against his head, before the remote was kicked out of his hand, causing it to skid across the floor.

"Really Ghetsis, is that the best you can do? Try to scare me with a remote? You know you wouldn't have enough time to have done anything at all, not even set something off!" Gio laughed, mocking the scientist underneath him.

"And yet, you were foolish enough to believe in it." Ghetsis said softly with a smile, raising his hand to reveal the key chain, before multiple clicks were heard around the room. "Better run now Giovanni, time's against you." Ghetsis said with a smile, before coughing violently.

In a matter of minutes, the calm Team Rocket leader cursed again, before reaching into his jacket pocket and revealing a pokeball. "Goodbye Ghetsis, have a nice time." He said coldly, before releasing the pokemon that was inside, revealing a humanoid pokemon, holding two spoons in its hands. "Alakazam, teleport." That was all that was needed, as the Psychic type nodded before its, and Giovanni's body glowed blue, before the two of them disappeared.

Ghetsis closed his eyes as he waited for him end. And as the walls exploded from within side to send debris and flames within the rooms, Ghetsis simply muttered "Death is not the end" before the room was engulfed in flames, bringing an end to what was there as everything began collapsing.

* * *

><p>Petrel had managed to cover a good 100 metres away from the complex before he heard the explosion coming from it. Even though he was a good distance away, the noise was still extremely loud to him, and his mouth dropped slightly when he saw the flames surrounding the affected part. There was no way in which Ghetsis would have been able to survive that at all, so it was all over now.<p>

For someone that had actually listened to him and respected him, Petrel felt as if a huge part of his body was being ripped out from what he was seeing. However, he still had a job to do as he wiped away the solitary tear from the corner of his eye.

He looked at his PokéNav, and saw a new message had come through. It was short and sweet, getting to the point straight away. He nodded to himself whilst reading it, before slipping to the shadows to avoid being seen, the message running through his head. _Cerulean. 4pm. 4 days time._


	11. Revelation

**Here is the new chapter! :P Sorry its late, been busy with driving lessons and a few other bits and bobs. Nice to see people are reading it still thankfully, so enjoy!**

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><p>It had been a couple of days since the trio had departed from the battle, and it seemed like the questions never stopped form the two of them with who he was, where did he come from etc. It was as if they wanted all the answers now, and it was only by a sharp "NO" that managed to silence them from asking any more questions about him instead.<p>

However though Ash had to admit it was quite nice having some companions around him again whilst he was travelling. He had found out that the two were best friends that originated from Johto originally. They had said that they were born and raised in Goldenrod City, before meeting each at school there in the city. They had a made a pact of that when they were old enough they would travel together around getting all the badges that were available.

They had started their journey a year ago, and managed to get all 8 badges just in time for the Silver Conference, but they opted against participating in it as they thought they weren't experienced enough in it to do well. So instead they travelled to Kanto in order to battle the gym leaders here instead.

They reminded him of his younger self a lot, as they did exactly the same as him almost, just skipping the conferences. However he couldn't let it get to him, he had something to do. He had to dish out revenge to his friends… Could he actually classify them as his friends anymore? It was such a long time ago that all feelings he had towards them were neutral now. But there was still something there, hidden beneath his revenge that he just couldn't figure out.

Shaking it away, he looked at his two travellers noting how they were laughing with each on past stories that they had experienced throughout their journey. It raised a small smile, and he looked at the electric mouse that was resting on his shoulder and gave it a rub on the head, with a small "Chaaaaaa" being emitted from his Pikachu.

So far everything was going ok, and he was hoping that this wouldn't take too long to complete this journey, then he would be hopefully be able to out this all behind him and finally see his missed one at last…

* * *

><p>Just past Pewter City, all was silent in a dense forest, which was full of beautiful, multi-coloured trees, which had the most wonderful leaves, which looked so delicate that a gentle blow from a mouth would break them into a million pieces. If any nature-loving person or photographer was to come here, they would have been blown away by the sheer beauty of the place.<p>

There was a footpath to this place, yet it was completely different to the surroundings. Where the few trainers and pokemon had crossed this part of the forest before, it had led to a gentle, yet disastrous eroding of the ground, as now it was full of bumps which could easily trip someone or something up. However, now these bumps were camouflaged from the fallen branches and leaves from the nearby trees making it impossible to see.

However this serene image was soon to be broken; a loud crack could be heard for ages due to the stillness, and quietness of the forest leading to the instance fluttering of the nesting Pokémon which were hidden in the trees causing a sudden cry of crowing and all other sorts were heard all around.

The cause of the noise was suddenly seen, as rapid footsteps could be heard arriving quickly, with more sticks and twigs being broken with sudden snaps. Petrel had been continuously running for the past couple of days, as he felt that he was continuously being chased by something. That fear had been confirmed not long ago when he spotted the luminous yellow eyes from the dark looking at him, before the growling started. That was an hour ago, and the pokemon still hadn't given up on chasing him.

Fatigue was slowly getting to him, as carrying the briefcase with him as well just added unnecessary weight. His breath was becoming more heavy and laboured, and inevitably it was due that he was going to trip on the ground. His foot went completely into one of the divot, causing him to stumble before placing the briefcase in front of him to take the brunt of the damage. He swilled around quickly, getting onto his back as he tried moving backwards, keeping his eyes on the pokemon in front of him at all times.

The Granbull came to a slow stop about 5 metres away from the trainer on the floor; saliva was dripping from its tusks as it looked at the human on the floor. Too many days had passed without it getting a decent meal into its body, so spotting this…treat in front of him was too much to pass by.

Petrel on the other hand was…well…going to need a new change of trousers after this was done, if that was he got through it. He was at a disadvantage though, having not taken his pokemon with him to avoid any unnecessary battles with trainers. However it looked like it was to be a costly mistake as the Granbull went onto all four legs as it slowly advanced upon him. He kept on scrambling backwards, trying to avoid the normal type, before his back hit a tree, stopping him from advancing any more.

With that force, the briefcase he was holding slipped out of his hand and cluttered to the floor, with the locks opening slightly just to open it enough. The gleam of the mechanical balls inside reminded Petrel he had a chance, and scrambled for the briefcase, as the Granbull lunged at him he placed the briefcase in front of it, watching as too tusks went through the case cleanly.

The normal type shook its head viciously as it tried to free itself, flinging the pokeballs out onto the ground. As he crawled towards the pokeballs, he felt something inside of him pull slightly to his left, and his gaze was directed to the purple pokeball which was just within arm's reach. Looking at the Granbull who just managed to free itself, he grabbed the pokeball in his hand and released the pokemon inside.

And then all hell broke loose.

* * *

><p>Ash was secretly enjoying the company of the two juniors more and more. They had brought a new breath towards him, almost getting him to relax. Almost though. There were still things to do, and they were now not that far away from Cerulean at all.<p>

He and Josh had managed to get through Mt Moon about 10 minutes ago, only to be met by a shaken Cindy. It appeared that she had a fear of the dreaded pesky Zubats that seemed to be everywhere. She wouldn't talk about, but Josh said with a snigger that it had something to do with "an unfortunate mess being made on her hair one time."

As much as he tried to avoid it, the past memories kept on coming back to him no matter how hard he tried to shake them out of his head. And it was made even harder as the top of the Cerulean gym started to come into view. At this Cindy let out a squeal as she too saw it.

"Hey Cindy" Josh said casually with his hands in his pockets as he looked around the road they were on.

"Yeah?" She said as she whipped her head to her right where her friend was located.

"Race you." He said with a grin as he poked his tongue out, before rushing on ahead.

"Hey! No fair you cheater!" She shouted, before giving chase to the boy.

Ash couldn't help but laugh at this childish act, as it was would have been something he would have done as well. He could understand their excitement as well; they were both aiming to get their 6th badge for the region. The boulder badge would have been it, but Cindy had refused to challenge Forrest until Josh had won.

He kept on walking, but nudged the sleeping pokemon on his shoulder awake. "Come on buddy. Almost there now." Ash said to Pikachu, only to get a whack on his head from his starter's tail. He let out a small laugh from this, shaking his head at the electric type.

It was going to be interesting to see if the two would challenge Misty if she was still the gym leader. Not only because he had to see if she was worthy of battling, but also he was intrigued to see what the rest of their team was. Hopefully they had picked up some tricks from him, and now wouldn't go for the silly choice ups… although he was one to talk. He chuckled at this, remembering his Pikachu going up against Brock's Onix oh so many years ago.

He shook his head as he began to focus again on the task ahead; watch the two battle, maybe battle Misty if she was worth it, then head off there. His gaze fell on the tall building that was slowly beginning to get closer, knowing it was all going to kick off again.

* * *

><p>The noise of rippling was too tempting for the man, as he dashed out of the clearing and fell onto his knees, cupping handfuls of water into his mouth, groaning as the liquid quenched the first that had been building up for the past couple of hours. After he was done, he twisted onto his back, closing his eyes as he began to relax after the events which had happened in the past day.<p>

He opened his eyes as he heard something walking towards him. Lifting his head up, he let out a small sigh as he knew the pokemon wouldn't be a threat to him, even though it was different from the others.

"Vee." The pokemon snorted at his trainer, shaking his head at how pathetic he looked at by almost sticking his head into the lake. He sat down and arched his back, feeling all the muscles stretching, letting out a small groan before shivering. Petrel just stared at the pokemon, just wondering how it was so….relaxed after everything that had just happened in the past day alone.

What it had done….no words could be put in place as to how horrific it was. He just wondered what on earth the professor had actually done to the pokemon for it to battle like it did. But nevertheless…it was interesting, and certainly a very powerful weapon indeed.

Grinning, he stood up and smoothed off the dust from his knees, before returning the Eevee back to its ball. He had the others with him, located on his belt rather than the suitcase, as how often did you see someone walking around with a solid metal one? No, he had to be more discreet with how he carried himself. If the meeting was still going ahead, he had….roughly 4 hours to get to the meeting place. He guessed he was around an hour away from the town, so he had time thankfully. Sighing, he headed off towards the city, at the same time a duo were looking at a certain gym, memories fading back to him.

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><p><strong>So there you have it :P The same Eevee from before has popped up, but what is its power though? You'll find out soon enough ;) And yes there may be another battle with Ash and Misty perhaps as well, plus we might get to see who the others Petrel are meeting too :D Until next time, byyyyyyyyyyyye!<strong>


	12. The Downspiral of Water

Hey Guys... long time no see :P So it's been a while, so I present to you a long chapter here! Sorry for the delay, but been busy with uni and the release of X and Y (which caused me to stop writing for a bit to process all the new info!) Enjoy!

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><p>The city of water. It was mostly famous for the Sensational Sisters, with their unusual water shows held regularly at the gym. But now they were most forgotten. People began to grow tired of seeing the same old thing regularly, and drifted off to new and more exciting things going on. The PokéCircus had grown strong, with different acts appearing most of time. Ticket sales went down, leading to any income from the water shows going towards nothing.<br>So it eventually meant that the show was closed, leaving just the gym in its wake instead. The town was normal again, and the only non-Cerulean's to enter the city were trainers going for the gym. The city had become peaceful and quaint like it had been so long ago…

"I WAS FIRST!"

"LIES YOU IDIOT! I GOT HERE FIRST FAIR AND SQUARE. DON'T CHEAT!"

The duo shouting out at each other was certainly out of the blue for the town, leading to many of the locals giving the two strange looks, before shaking their heads, carrying on with their daily lives.

"Josh don't even try this with me! I was here first. Deal with it!" Cindy said, shaking her fist at the boy as her eyes slowly squinted at him.

"Ha-ha nice try. But a girl like you wouldn't be able to beat me! That's why I-"

*CLUMP*

"Hehe magikarp." Josh giggled as he collapsed onto his back, Cindy towering over him with a baseball bat in her right arm, tapping it against her left palm. The poor boy was giggling away to himself as in his eyes; he saw the mighty magikarp going around his vision.  
>Ash let out a small chuckle as he saw the scene in front of him, it reminded him so much of his youth, and when he was threatened by the magical mallet, which always seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Hey Cindy… Where on earth do you keep that bat?" Ash asked, eyeing it up carefully.<p>

"Oh you know us girls. We can always find a place for stuff." Cindy said casually as she pulled a mirror out of her bag, looking at something in reflection before chucking it back in.

"_Definitely the bag. Bigger on the inside compared to how it looks on the outside" _Ash thought to himself, just as Josh finally managed to come back. He groaned as he grabbed his head, shakily getting up to his feet, before firing daggers from his eyes towards Cindy.

"Women. Always getting away with murder." He muttered under his breath, before making his way over to his travelling partner, who had stopped outside a building with a massive Dewgong on its front.

"So this is it then I guess?" He said, looking the building up and down, impressed with its size.

"Yep. This is where the map says we are supposed to go. So what are we waiting for then!" Cindy shouted, punching the air before setting off towards the building with Josh at her heel. Ash followed behind slowly, mind focused on the job that was at hand. Pikachu patted his partners head sadly, knowing the pain that he went through.

"You know what Pikachu… it has been too long. Too long being buried away in that cave. I waited and waited, not knowing what to do, or when would be the best time for me to come back. They caused me the pain to do that. The pain of having everything ripped away from me, and not being able to have it. And I think it's time that I give them all something which is similar to that." He said, before placing his hand to his belt and holding up a dusk ball.

"Chaaaa!?" The exclamation came from the electric type as he saw what pokemon his trainer wanted to use. It was one of the few powerhouses that even he struggled against regularly, and for Ash to use him… he definitely meant business.

"Fun time." Ash said with a small smile as he entered the building, the automatic doors hissing as the allowed him entry. He saw the two at the reception, handing in their pokédex's for inspection. Over the years, the checks had become quicker and efficient due to technology changes, allowing for more gym battles to be conducted in a better time. So all was done in about five minutes for the two of them, before they were told to go in when they were ready.

Ash waved them on when they started to head towards him. "I have business to attend to guys. I'll come in later and watch." He said casually, eyes glancing around the place. The teenagers looked at each and shrugged before walking through the swinging doors on the left of the reception towards the battlefield.  
>Once they had gone, he calmly walked over to the desk; looking at the receptionist dead in the eyes as he leant forward. "Hi there, I've got a little request, and I was wondering if you would be able to help me…"<p>

_*Time skip about 1 hour later*_

The battles against Misty were definitely the hardest they had faced so far. In fact, it was so hard they had to say that Misty was a tougher Gym leader then Clair! And for that to be said, it certainly was something.

If they hadn't of started training with Ash, they would of certainly of been crushed; yet just the few tips and hints he had given them whilst they were walking and training were seeing to pay off. Josh's Togekiss was more capable of being able to become more threatening with its additional move pool. With Ash's help, whom he called Red, he had managed to teach it shock wave and charge beam, making it a formidable opponent. However, he was told not to just focus on using his flying type, but to train with his other pokemon as well.  
>And he could see where Red was coming on from that point, as the lack of training he had given the rest of his team was shown; in a simple 3v3 battle, he was reduced to Togekiss as his last pokemon, and he barely even managed to defeat Misty's Dewgong, even with the new moves.<p>

Cindy on the other hand, had a much easier ride as her team already had a more balanced move pool. However for her she lack the raw power that was inside her pokemon; well, that was what Red had told her. He said that she had to embrace it, and not hold back; she was puzzled by this as she didn't know how to really do this. But she had trained harder, and it certainly paid off to some extent, when she managed to beat Misty's last pokemon with the last strength of her 2nd pokemon, who decided to crash out after that.

However, they both were extremely happy when they walked up to the Water gym leader to collect their badges, which were being presented from a velvet box.

"Well done you two. Certainly been one of the better matches I've had in a while. I could see you had trained well, especially against my tier 2 team." Misty said with a smile as she took each Cascade Badge out of the box and placed it in the open palms of each trainer.

"Tier 2…?" Josh asked with a puzzled look on his face, before glancing over at Cindy who had the same look on her face as well.

"Well it's not common knowledge, but it's a system that was introduced a few years ago. Apparently there were gym leaders that would put out a weaker team on purpose because they couldn't be asked to actually fight, granting trainers an underserved badge. So a system was introduced that each gym leader had to register their pokemon onto a level scale, which would show officials in a battle if a gym leader was using the best possible team in each match." Misty said as she closed the box and placed it on the floor, before stretching out.

"So, how many pokemon have you got in your highest tier then? And how many people actually face against it?" Cindy asked, genuinely intrigued with this new information. It actually explained why they had to say what pokemon they were going to use in the matches, rather than mentally swearing at the gym leaders for gaining an unfair add vantage.

"So far, I only have two pokemon registered at Tier 1. But they hardly battle unless it's against another gym leader or elite. But sometimes requests also come through for a battle against them, which is quite rare." Misty said with a shrug, before the PokeTech on her wrist went off. She glanced down, before tapping on the screen. "Well, that's quite weird… Someone's requested a Tier 1 battle with me for now. Usually I get warning before this, but it's not the end of the world." Misty reached down onto her waterproof bag that she had next to her feet, and picked out two slightly paler pokeballs. The red was still there, but it was slowly going towards a more pinkish colour.

"If you want, you can sit down on the side to watch this match so you can get an idea of what it's like" Misty said as she turned around, only to see the two trainers already sitting down, starring opened eyed at the battlefield. She just shook her head, before she took her place on the podium, starring at the pool in front of her with the floating boards rocking slightly.

The door creaked open slowly, before a figure dressed in all black stepped out, with the hood up covering the whole of the challenger's face. For a short distance to the opposite podium, the challenger was taking their time, with the click of each foot stepping down echoing around the arena.

"Welcome challenger. I admire your bravo for this battle, but I'm afraid you won't be able to win this. May I have your name please?" Misty said casually as she placed a hand on each hip.

"…"

"Uhhh hello? Anyone there?" Misty said as she cocked up an eyebrow, surprised at the rudeness from the trainer.

"…Red…" Was all that came out of the mouth of the trainer as he took down his hood. Misty was taken aback by the bright blue eyes that seemed to be piercing through her. On the side of the pitch, the two young trainer's mouths were wide opened as they heard the name mentioned. They were going to see their travelling partner battle against a Tier 1 team?! "He must be crazy" Josh muttered under his breath, with Cindy only nodding in response.

"Ah…Ummm…ok then Red. Have a good battle." Misty said slowly as she composed herself, before she grabbed the pokeballs at her waist. "You are about to face the true power of the Cerulean gym, and why I haven't lost a Tier 1 battle yet! Let's go guys!" She shouted as she chucked her pokeballs into the air, for a piercing white light to erupt from them. Cindy and Josh raised an arm over the eyes to shield them from the light, but were amazed to see the pokemon in front of them.

Standing up on one of the pad's had to be one of the most muscular Golducks that had been seen by the two of them for a while. Every muscle seemed to be defined on its bright blue skin, as it waved its arms in the air. But what really took their breath away was the colossal size of the pokemon in the pool that seemed to almost be touching the top of the building. The Gyarados glared down at the puny trainer that was dressed all in black, before letting out an ear-splitting roar, making everyone but Red wince at all. Rather, a small smirk appeared on his face as he just took one pokeball from his belt. Cindy noticed that it wasn't a normal coloured pokeball, but was green and purple all over.

In the complete opposite, rather than a bright light being erupted, black smoke came out of the pokeball. But rather than disappearing, it seemed to be lingering in the air, before a roar that matched Gyarados' was emitted into the air.

"Are you sure you only want one pokemon out?" Misty said cautiously. Normally these types of battles would be two on two or greater. But she had never experienced this, and she didn't even though what pokemon was in the cloud.

"…" Red just simply nodded, before waving a hand in the air.

"Whatever then. Your problem if you get destroyed! Gyarados, fire off a water pulse, and Golduck use Psychic on it to concentrate its power!" Misty shouted out, and instantly the pokemon responded with grace. Gyarados opened its mouth as a blue 'O' was formed in its mouth and fired at a quite rapid speed, before a purple glow appeared over it. The cause of this was from the Golduck, who with the similar colour over its body, placed the circle into an orb as it sped up towards Red pokemon.

However Red's face hadn't changed at all; the smirk was still there, just as the orb crashed into the cloud causing a cloud of grey ash to spread out in front of the cloud. All was silent for a few moments, before two pillars of dark blue went sent spiralling out so fast, Misty just blinked before her pokemon had been sent crashing to the back behind her.

"What the…?" Misty, Josh and Cindy all said at the same time as the saw Misty's pokemon shake off the attack before getting back to the battlefield, albeit a bit slower. The cloud was slowly dispersing, and a shadow could be seen in it, appearing very quickly.

"What on earth is that?" Josh asked, staring in shock at the shadow that was moving slowing in the crowd

"I really have no idea. But from that attack, I really wouldn't want to face it." Cindy said, awestruck at Red. Josh just shook his head at her, before looking at Misty, whose face was a mix of pure shock and madness.

"…Go…" Red said as he pointed at the two pokemon in front of him. With a roar, the cloud was blown apart, revealing a pokemon that could be described as a three-headed beast with six thin, black wings on its back each of which ended in two points, which also had a tail which had a purple stripe running up it, with a black tuft on the end of it.

It was a pokemon none of them had seen before, and the power could be felt radiating from it. With no time to spare launched a yellow beam from both of its smaller heads quickly, striking the Golduck in both of it legs, causing it to fall to its knees with a cry of pain. Gyarados took the imitative to strike, firing out a seemingly endless hydro pump from its mouth, striking the pokemon in the wings. The sudden attack took it by surprise as the pokemon started to fall towards the floor.

"Yes! Good hit Gyarados!" Misty shouted out, feeling slightly a bit more confident now as it seemed that the pokemon could be defeated.

"…Hydreigon, swoop in…" Red ushered in a monotone voice as he cocked his head slightly, staring at Misty. The dragon type started to spin on its descent, before it made a tight angular turn just above the water quickly as its body began to glow in a vibrant purple colour. Before Misty could shout out, the pokemon shot into Gyarados, lifting it into the air before it crashed into the water, creating a wave that crashed into Golduck, sending it into the water as well.

"…Your pokemon are strong, but a lack of training has not helped them..." Red said out calmly, watching the anger building up on Misty's face as his taunt slowly began to get to her.

"Only a cheap shot would be able to do that! Let me show me my Pokémon's true power! Gyarados, Dragon Dance into Giga Impact! Golduck, Calm Mind into Brine then lead it into Blizzard!" Misty shouted, her face slowly turning redder as the seconds ticked by.

Gyarados slowly rose out of the water as its eyes turned a deep red until most of its body was out of the water. With a quick roar, it began to twist its body in one direction into another as light blue spark were emitted from its body.  
>But it was Golduck that was the quickest off the mark. As soon as the command was said, he had begun to surround itself in pinkish glow as the water around its platform began to rise up from the ground slowly. With a small grunt, he pushed his hands in front of him, with the water following in the same direction. But at the same time a bitter breeze has emerged, and the water was turned into small, sharp pieces of ice.<p>

Hydreigon had no time to react as the water-turned-ice had picked up in speed quickly, and soon enough the wings on its body were encased in ice as it crashed down onto a platform, struggling to get up. This brief moment of time was an opening, and the Gyarados made the most of this as it collided into the dragon type whilst its body was covered in a vibrant purple. The collision was powerful enough to send the Hydreigon into the water with a crash, as the Gyarados made its way back to Misty.

"And that should be game, set and match!" Misty said with a smile, exhausted but happy with what had just happened. But a frown appeared on her face with there was no sign of the dragon pokemon at all. She was certain Red had not re-called it back, so where on earth was it?

"…No need to get cocky now…Always expects the unexpected…" Red said as a small smile began to reach onto his face.

"Guys be on the lookout just in case!" Misty shouted out, eyes darting from side to side as she looked out for the pokemon.

"…Just because you land some very powerful hits doesn't mean you win…Sometimes it can be for the worse…" Red chuckled, before he looked Misty in the eye. "…Showtime…"

There wasn't much hope for Misty after that at all. A shadow appeared underneath her Pokemon's platforms. The Hydreigon came flying out of the water behind the Gyarados, a mouth clinging onto its neck whilst little sparks where flying onto the skin, causing the water type to roar out in pain. But at the same time, a beam of electricity was shot towards the Golduck, sending it flying into the water with singe marks on its chest.

With a bored look ok its face, the dragon type pulled the Gyarados into the water, as a small moan came from its mouth. With a nod from Red, the Hydreigon lifted up both its hand-mouths, before firing a multitude of electric beams into the water. The two water types had no chances as speaks were emitted everywhere.

"It's done. Good battle, but too weak. You need to train more. And this wasn't even my strongest as well." Red said as he recalled his Hydreigon as both of Misty's pokemon floated to the surface of the pool, both knocked out form the super effective charge beam.

"I…I…no…" Misty just whispered; she was so close to winning, and in a flash her victory had been shattered in the space of a minute. It was just impossible.

"Oi Cindy, let's move. I don't think it's wise to be here anymore." Josh said once he had composed himself. The same couldn't be said to his friend, who's mouth was wide open, but she just followed him when he pulled at her arm, dumbstruck at what had happened.

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><p>So there's that chapter, and hope you enjoyed the 2nd new pokemon Ash has got! So with X an Y being out, there are a few changes that have been made with the story, so it should make everything a tad bit more interesting thankfully from now. Can't guarantee when the next chapter will be out, but I'll work on it soon though! ~Sheep<p> 


	13. Swirl

So guys, here's the next part of the story. All my work for uni has finished for this term, so I can now focus on writing more chapters for this story as well as focusing on my walkthroughs on youtube as well! Anywho, enjoy!

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><p>The Cerulean Café had been passed down from family member in each generation, with the locals providing enough income for the café to still be running after all the 160 years it had been open. The current owner, Gareth, had been working there since he was a little boy at 10 underneath his father. Go forward around 30 years and he was still there hard-working no matter what.<p>

So he even though he knew everyone that lived in Cerulean to the tee, he was surprised to see 3 new faces in the café sitting down. It wasn't unusual for trainers to come to the café seeing as the gym was nearby… but 3 fully grown adults? It was completely strange.

Still, he didn't raise any questions when they came up the stall to order, simply asking for 4 black coffees. He simply nodded and produced the order pretty quickly; at the end of the day, money was money to him, but there was this niggling feeling at the back of his head as he watched the trio sit down at a round table, just waiting.

The clinking of the bell at the door caught Gareth's attention, and he saw a man, who seemed to be in quite tattered clothes really, as if he had been dragged through a forest, before sitting down with the others. Gareth just shrugged as he turned his back to them, to carry on with some cleaning and other pieces that had to be done.

"Comrades." Petrel said simply as he sat down at the empty chair, looking at each individual in the eyes. All three of them were dressed in all black, except each of them had a small armband around their left side with different colours.  
>To his left was a female with long, pinkish hair that had a hint of some curls in it. Her redeyes seemed to burn into Petrels, before turning away and sipping at her coffee in her left hand, not paying attention for the moment whilst her right hand twiddled at the blue armband around her bicep.<br>To his right sat who he thought was the most chilling out of the three. Her grey eyes were darting from side to side as she looked from her cup to Petrel, before flickering to the others rapidly. There was never a dull moment, as she seemed to be calculating every single thing that was happening, expecting something to happen and to have a perfect plan to counter it. She toyed with the back of her purple hair gently whilst she did this, with a dark green band on her wrist.  
>Finally, sitting opposite him was finally another male, who was able to keep eye contact. His blue eyes locked onto Petrels, not moving an inch at all, as he swept the few strands of hair that were falling onto his forehead. His band however was located on his hand, the red fabric wrapping it up as if it was tape.<p>

"You know why I'm here. You have heard of what happened at R1." Petrel stated to just get nods back in reply. The explosion had been in the news, but covered up as a simple blown gas pipe that had caught on fire.

"Ghetsis managed to finish the tests in time. It seems that each Pokémon only responds to the correct person. I have already managed to get mine, hence why I look like I do." He said, whilst waving a hand up and down his body slowly.

"The results are positive though. Everything succeeds initial thoughts, so the boss will be happy with this. So before we move on, here are the others. You should feel the attraction." Petrel said as he placed a black, red and silver pokéball onto the table.

The man in front of him was the first to react, simply leaning forward and grabbing the black ball. He held it for a few seconds, as if to contemplate the power inside, before he nodded and placed the ball into a pocket. The girl with the blue armband looked across to the grey eyes of the other girl, who was seen twiddling the red pokéball in her hands slowly, before tossing it up and down as if it was a sports ball. Sighing, she finally grabbed the remaining silver ball, feeling the slight tingling of static on her skin as she clenched the ball, as if it was merging with her skin. But quickly, the sensation went. Staring at the ball, she shrugged before placing the ball on her belt.

"Now that is done, we need to move onto other matters. Ketchum is back, which complicates things somewhat, but the boss has apparently found out a way to deal with that." Petrel said, before turning to the grey eyed girl.

"Sird. You are entrusted with finding a book. With info the boss has found on Ketchum, this book should be the key to defeating him fully apparently. Finding this is vital. Details are here on where it is kept. It should be fairly easy for you." He said as he slid a piece of paper across the table. Sird picked it up gently, studying the paper, a frown appearing on her face.

"…Is the boss certain on this? But this is a risky accusation to make? However the book will be easy to gain. It won't take long at all."

"The info is correct. There have been…incidents that have proven this. Do not be fooled." Petrel said, before facing the girl to his left. "Shelly. You have the task of collecting these 3 artefacts. These were hidden after an incident, and the boss has heard rumours that they have appeared in a new region. Collect them and return them to the rendezvous point once you have done so. Your ticket is here. Your flight leaves tomorrow." Petrel said as he slid another piece of paper and an envelope towards Shelly. She collected both and stood up, leaving without saying another word at all, walking out of the door quickly.

"Moody bitch." The other guy muttered under his breath as he watched her leave.

"Tabitha, keep your opinions to yourself." Petrel said, giving him a cold stare, before moving his head in Sird's direction. She got the message and stood up as well, leaving without looking at the two of them. Tabitha looked on confused, wondering what was going to happen now.

"So you may be wondering why I asked Sird to leave. The reason for this is because you have two missions, with the second being top secret." Petrel said as he slid the final piece of paper across. Tabitha, closing his eyes slightly, before reading the info, picked it up gingerly. His eyes widened as he got towards the end, before slamming the paper on the table, eyes full of hesitation and fear at the same time.

"Are you actually being serious? The first part is hard enough for me to complete in the time required. But the second part… questions WILL be asked about that!" He said, waving his hands wildly.

"I know." Petrel said calmly as he studied his hand. "For the first part, everything is in the same place, so collecting it all should not be that hard, given you don't screw up. I admit, the second half is much more difficult. But for the plan to be complete, this item is needed. Which is why you will be at the rendezvous first to collect it. You do not want to disappoint the boss with this one."

"But why me?"

"Because Shelly's emotions would get in the way with this, whilst Sird cannot be trusted to get an item of such power. You on the other hand, have proven that you can do the job with no issues. You are the best fit." Petrel said, before standing up from the table, leaving his coffee untouched. "Your boat room has already been booked. You have 24 hours to prep before it leaves. Time is of the urgency here." Petrel said, before turning on his heel, walking out of the door towards the direction he had come from.

Tabitha stayed sitting down at his table, staring at the information, before folding it up and placing it in his pocket. He grabbed his coffee and downed it all in one go, before rapidly getting up, chair screeching across the floor.

By the time Gareth looked out from the back to see what had happened, all he was greeted too what an empty table with all 4 chairs all symmetrical, with a small item on the table. Gareth walked up, not only to clean up, but also to examine what had been left behind. It was a small black badge that looked like a black hole with small white dots on it. As he picked it up, a small click was heard, and the last thing Gareth ever saw in his life was a bright flash, before the intense heat of flames licked at his body, before everything was turned to ash.

"Boss, the evidence has been removed of. I am on my way to collect up the plates and put them into their right places. Is there going to be a cover story for the explosion?"

"Excellent Petrel." A dark figure on the x-transceiver said, with his face obscured by the shadows in the area. "Everything should be going to plan. Not too long ago, I was a different man. After learning the truth of everything, the plan must be completed for the true world to be revealed. And I'll tell the media that it was a rogue Electrode that wondered in from Cerulean Cave into the café. "

"Of course. Once the plates are collected, I'll finish Kanto first, and then move onto the other regions. I should be back in time. What about Ketchum though?"

"The boy should be of no worry at all. Time is on our side, and everything will fall into place. He is but a pawn in our game, and the time will come to which he will suffer for everything he has caused…"

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><p>So, this was the chapter in which I talk about 3 of the main actions which is going to be happening throughout the story now; can you guess which one is the most important? ;) We shall see... So in the next couple of chapters, Ash and co. will be arriving in a new city, and will come across an interest event...stay tuned! ~Sheep<p> 


	14. Revelation Battle: Part 1

**Yes this is a post *trumpets playing in background to multiple cheers and clapping.* Yes it's been a while, but I got distracted by a few things (Uni work, making sure I knew everything about X and Y so I could brag about my info to friends.) But also with X and Y coming out, I had to do a few bits of tweeking here and there with regards to plot and teams now. But it should make things more interesting now :D**

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><p>"<em>Authorities are saying that a rouge Electrode they had been hunting in the wild had managed to escape their perimeters and made it's way into the cafe."<em>

"_I see Kate; were there any causalities from this unfortunate incident?"_

"_Alas there was. Garth Barks, the owner was of the café was the only one in at the time. There was no one else involved at all, but the community is shocked by his sudden death. Kath Lock, Cerulean."_

"_Many thanks Kate. Again, this is all we know so far about the incident, in which authorities are keeping all information to themselves. In other news…"_

Ash turned his head away from the television screen in the café he was seated with Josh and Cindy. It had been a week since his battle with Misty, and they had, to his amazement, made quite a bit of progress. They had made it all the way to Fuchsia city in that time, but it was also due to them having Pokémon that could fly, so that halved the walking time drastically. So since that time they had trained, visited the newly opened Safari Park, as well as taking in some of the many sites in the area.

"Wow, that must be quite hard on his family." Cindy said as her eyes darted from the television screen back to Ash. This was the first they had heard of the incident; apparently, it hadn't been too long after they had left the city, but by that time they were far away to not hear anything.

"Indeed. Although it is weird for an Electrode to stray so far into the city…" Ash said, looking out into the window, leaving his cup of tea untouched.

"Well they said it had come from around the Power Plant, which isn't that far I guess."

"Hmmm… but the area has seen very little Pokémon life there…" Ash mumbled to himself, before a piece of paper was slammed into the table.

"Guys, you won't believe it! There's a Pokémon tournament being hosted here in the city today! Please, please can we enter it?" Josh rambled off quickly, looking back and forth between Cindy and Ash.

"Sure! We could have a bit of practice before we face the gym here! What about you Red…?" Cindy asked, before looking at their older companion. Since their battle, they hadn't uttered a word to him about his crushing victory over Misty at all, but they were longing for him to battle again.

"Hmmm I don't know… Let me look at that leaflet." He said, reaching over and grasping the paper between two of her fingers, before bringing it in front of his face.

His eyes scanned down the paper, before they rested on one particular spot, before a small grin began to appear on his face.

"You know what, I think I may just take part in this little event. Come on, no time to rush at all." Ash said, grabbing his cup of tea and swallowing the rest of the contents in one go.

"Yes! This will be amazing!" Josh shouted as he followed Ash out of the door with Cindy, his sudden departure causing the leaflet to float off the table onto the floor, in which it folded on itself. However, a few words could be seen:

"_Special presentation from Hoenn's Top Co-ordinator May Maple with family and friends!"_

The competition was being held east of the Fuchsia gym, with the cycling bridge overlooking the pitch. It had the appearance of a brand new area, with clean floors, sparking stands, as if it had been frozen in time and not touched at all.

It seemed like the competition was popular within the city, as it looked like there was over 50 trainers or so in the area.

"Hmmm. Looks like today is going to be busy then!" Josh said, as the trio walked over to a small signing in booth. There was already one side of A4 paper filled out with names, and the 3 added theirs to the list.

"Hopefully they won't drag it out too long. I don't want to be spending my time here forever. I have other things to do." Cindy said with a sigh, as they moved over to the stage, where the other trainers had been gathering.

Ash at this point had still said nothing at all, with his attention being focused on the stage completely, as if he was waiting for something to happen. Cindy found this a bit strange, considering his reaction earlier on to the flyer, but shrugged it off, thinking it was just how he got into the mood for battles.

They continued to wait in the crowd, which was slowly getting bigger… and they continued to wait… and waited… and continued to wait. It was getting to the point now that a lot of people were mumbling and looking at watches and phones, pointing to the time. It had reached the extent were some people were leaving now, mainly the competitors.

Eventually, a small cheer came from behind the crowd, and everyone turned their heads to see (Leader of Fuchsia gym), with a small scowl on her face, being followed by a group of around 5 people.

A girl, with brunette hair that was cropped of the neck stepped up to the microphone that was placed in front of the crowd, with a half-hearted look on her face.

"Hey everyone. Sorry for being so late, but I saw this adorrrrrrrrable pair of shoes that I just simply had to get. I couldn't resist at all." May said, waving a bag in the air as if to show her point, before she began to speak again.

"Anyways, I was asked to present this tournament seeing as I'm touring Kanto again as the leading Co-ordinator throughout all the main regions, so here I am. You are all awarded with my presence. Plus, my brother, the youngest person to reach the top 2 in Hoenn's Championship, said he wanted to take part to see if there was any real talent. So I wish you the best of luck, as you'll need it!" She said with a laugh, before waving back to the gym leader, to signal that she was done.

"Well then guys. After that… lovely speech, I guess the competition is now open. Due to how much time is left, battles will just be one versus one, so good luck!" She said, jumping back just in time as a rush of people made their way to the stands, eager to finally see some action.

"Well then guys, Best of luck. May the best person win!" Cindy shouted, high-fiving Josh before turning to Red, only to see him gone. "Well… He must be eager then." She said, before shrugging, as the names for the first round where being read off.

"…And the last match up is Josh Boisevs. Max Maple!"

All the other matches had been completed, with Ash comfortably beating his opponent in no time at all with Hydreigon whilst Cindy had a bit of a harder time but still going through.

Now it was Josh's time, and the crowd had grown in size to see Max battle, which really didn't help his nerves at all. If he was feeling like this at a very small tournament for the opening of a new training area, how would he cope in the big tournaments?

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, before walking over to his side of the pitch. His opponent was already there waiting for him; and to be honest he didn't look the strongest from his appearance. His hair was quite long and shiny, from a layer of grease maybe? And the big glasses on his face didn't really help out as well, giving him the appearance of a geek

"Jeeeeez take you're time will ya? I've got places to be, people to beat, which includes you!" Max shouted out, before laughing as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

Josh pushed the mocking comment aside, before pulling out his pokeball, ready to go, nodding at the referee to get it under away.

"This will be a battle between Josh Boise from New Bark Town and Max Maple from Petalburg City. Trainers, send out your Pokémon!" The referee shouted out, looking at both trainers.

"Hmph. This should be easy. Me, the champion, against an unknown? Pffff. Lets go Petal." Max said as he casually chucked a pokéball from his hand. And in a flash a green bipedal Pokémon stood up on its feet, with two roses on each of its hand.

"Addddddddde!" The grass type shouted, moving its feet into a fighting stance.

"A Roserade then. It may be small, but I can't underestimate it. Let's see if it can stop you though Bliss!" Josh shouted, before chucking his pokéball high into the air. In the same manner as Max, the pokéball exploded with a flash.  
>But rather having a Pokémon on the ground, Josh instead had his Togekiss in the air. However it was different from the one Ash had seen not that long ago; the weaker looking Pokémon was now replaced with a more confident, determined Pokémon in the air.<p>

"I admire Josh's strategy. Using Bliss' flying type moves will give it a definite add vantage in the battle. However he is going to struggle at the same time, and it's not because Max is a champion." Ash said, his eyes not leaving Max's face on bit.

"I don't understand Red. Everything seems to be in his favour." Cindy asked as she turned around to look at her travelling companion.

"What I mean is, if Max is as good as he is, then he will know that his Roserade can deal super effective damage as well."

"That's not possible. The Roserade is a grass type, and grass isn't effective against flying types at all."

"But you are forgetting secondary types as well. Roserade is part poison as well."

"Still. That shouldn't matter at all…or does it?" Cindy asked, and all Ash could do was turn his head to the young girl.

"It's not common knowledge, but there is another type in the world. One that has lain hidden until now. And it is slowly becoming more knowledgeable to the community. Those poison moves will be dealing a hefty amount of damage. For Togekiss is… a Fairy type."

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><p><strong>Sooooo that's a big revelation to go out on! Fairy types will be making an appearance now, plus mega evoltuions as well (I mean, c'mon. HOW could I not include them in this story?! But I won't be sticking to the game mechanics. There will be some tweeking here and there with the mega's!<strong>  
><strong>Anywho. This chapter was going to include the battle as well, but I figured due to no uploads for a bit, I thought I would post the beginning. As then I can focus more on the battle itself (Yay!)<strong>  
><strong>As for the next chapter, no idea unfortunately. Going to be very busy in the 6 weeks with uni work (I'm getting my head stuck down) but once its done I will start writing again. See ya next time!<strong>


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